How I Turned a Jazzy Dream Into a New Hallmark Event

"The truest expression of a people is in its dance and music." - Agnes de Mille 

By Patrick Driessen
Early October I had an exciting dream about organising an indoor jazz festival, which would bring thousands of people closer to some of the best jazz and blues artists from around the world!

My dream was based on some of my own past experiences; as a child my parents took me to many jazz festivals in Holland and I witnessed some of the biggest musicians and vocalists in the world perform at the famous North Sea Jazz Festival; the world's largest indoor jazz festival.

Keeping the dream alive, I gave it some more thoughts during the day. Soon I realised that in Australia (where I live since the end of 2005) a large scale international jazz festival was missing, causing many people to miss out on unique and long-lasting entertainment experiences and musical inspiration.

After interviewing various people about their personal experiences in attending the North Sea Jazz Festival (Netherlands), Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland) or Montreal Jazz Festival (Canada) I gained enough insights: these festivals had a deep, inspiring, positive and long-lasting impact on their audiences!

For a lot of young musicians the artists they saw performs at these festivals gave them the inspiration to invest even more time and energy to become a better musician whether as amateur of professional. These live jazz festivals also had a very positive social impact and further research showed the commercial viability of a large scale international jazz and blues festival. So why had nobody ever dared to do it in Australia?

In pitching my festival vision to various jazz experts and music festival organisers I received a common feedback: this concept is a gap in the Australian market and will potentially create massive meaning to thousands of people; festival patrons, industry experts as well as young musicians and professional artists.

So actually this was about inspiring, educating, entertaining and helping other people! Perfectly in line with my personal beliefs, passion and drive! Hence why I also organise the successful bi-monthly Sydney Startup Networking Party series, the legendary Holland House events during the FIFA World Cup and various other regular parties and events; all focused on helping people succeed by bringing them together, inspiring them and entertaining them!

I knew enough and was starting up a new mission! Inspired by the idea of creating a new large scale international jazz festival, I turned myself into a festival director! After creating and optimising the vision and goals for my new international jazz and blues festival, I teamed up with various passionate musicians and festival experts to create a strong core team, allowing me to quickly turn my dream into reality.

From day one my biggest supporter has been my American - Dutch speaking - friend Steve Clisby who – as musician, vocalist and composer – has performed at many concert venues and festivals around the world with the likes of Tina Turner, Chaka Khan, Level 42, Carlos Santana, Hot Chocolade and the Crusaders. He immediately understood and supported the vision and bigger picture for the creation of my festival as new Australian hallmark event.

Still the question why nobody else had done or tried to do this before kept floating through my mind.... I started asking other people this same question and all I could find out was that most likely nobody had ever tried to do it because of the risks involved in staging such a large international live music festival, the lack of vision, lack of funds to make the required investments, etc.

This motivated me even more and I started to kick some real ass! Now a few weeks further down the line and after having spent most of my time on it, I managed to turn my dream into reality!
So far only a few people in the world know about it, because they have become part of it.... Besides this small group of people you're the first ones to know! In January we'll tell the rest of the world about our international jazz festival in Sydney. So here we go!

The Opportunity
Sydney has not had an international jazz festival in name since the 1990s. The Sydney Global Jazz & Blues Festival will be the first large scale - truly international - jazz and blues festival being held in Sydney since that period.

The Sydney Global Jazz & Blues Festival will help challenge for the title of Australia's jazz capital and will put Australia and Sydney on the global map with other prestigious international jazz festivals such as the North Sea Jazz Festival (Netherlands), and Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland).

Creating a New Original
Our festival will be setting new trends and quality standards in each and every aspect. It will be the most prestigious, most exclusive and most sophisticated jazz and blues festival in the world! Instead of trying to copy the leaders in the global market place, we will create a new industry leading original, which can be qualified as new international hallmark event and ranked as ’super premium’; serving the top-end of the market.

The Key Drivers
The key principals and drivers for the organisation to stage these events are to:

• Inspire
• Educate
• Unite
• Innovate
  
• Entertain.

Our Unique Value Proposition
The annual Sydney Global Jazz & Blues Festival will provide a broad and compelling range of the contemporary jazz music scene incorporating funk, soul, big band swing, blues, jazz-rock, jazz-fusion, gospel, R&B and New Orleans jazz sounds, brought to you by a selection of some of the best musicians and vocalists from around the globe. It will potentially be the largest indoor jazz & blues festival in the Australasian region ever.

The specially created indoor Jazz Village festival venue will have 8 performance stages for over 125 live acts and can cater for over 50,000 guests over the three festival days.

The festival starts with the Sydney Jazz Gala on Wednesday evening followed by three vibrant festival days (Friday – Sunday) and the Kids Jazz Festival taking place on Saturday and Sunday morning.

The Artistic Program
Musicians, vocalists and entertainment acts will come from Poland, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Israel, United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Canada, United States, Chile, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Ethiopia, Egypt, South Korea, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia. A true global program!

We will mix five different programs with artists and acts:

1. World-class Hero’s & Legends
   
2. Up & Coming Overseas Stars
3. Best Australian Professional Artists
4. Young International & Australian Talents
   
5. Australian & International Entertainment Acts.

Festival Venue – Jazz Village
All festival performances will be staged at existing venues and specially build temporary marquis tents within the Entertainment Quarter and Hordern Pavillion premises in Sydney’s Moore Park; allowing us to create Jazz Village!

Jazz Village will be the largest and most intimate indoor festival venue possible; incorporating existing heritage listed buildings, existing modern buildings and specially build marquis tents. Between all these venues, large tents will be build to create a huge indoor Jazz Village, which can cater for thousands of festival patrons per day.

International Young Talent Program
One of the key drivers of our global jazz & blues festival is to create an artistic program in which we give selected young talents the opportunity to perform for a large audience, perform together with professional artists from around the world and attend workshops and master classes hosted by some of these great international artists.

Part of our Young Talent Program is the creation of a Young Talent Big Band, for which the selection already has started. Our artistic team and festival ambassadors are sourcing the best overseas and Australian based talents, so they can mix various generations of talented musicians, resulting in some of the most compelling performances on the stages of our festival.

"Jazz does not belong to one race or culture, but is a gift that America has given the world." - Ahmad Alaadeen 

With musical and entrepreneurial regards,


Patrick

My Shower Brainstorms

"The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself!" - Alan Alda

By Patrick Driessen
Since I was a little boy I like to spend a lot of time under the shower; sitting or lying down to...THINK! Yes, I’m a genuine shower thinker; I tend to get my best ideas and insights under the shower! Every morning I meditate, prepare for the day, strategise and think of new ideas under the shower.

According to various researchers on creativity, I’m not the only one as the shower is the most common place for people to come up with their best ideas. My number two situation/location to get inspiration and new ideas is while driving, and my third preferred location is in bed.

To keep track of my new ideas and strategies I have note pads in my car, next to my bed and carry a small one with me. Writing down all my thoughts really helps me to optimise and utilise my creative moments. To take note of my thoughts while under the shower was always a challenge. For years I wrote down my ideas after I had showered, but often forgot to write down some essential details. Four years ago I started using a waterproof scuba dive writing board under the shower. Not ideal, but at least I could write down the high level ideas while under the shower.

Last year I tried to further improve my shower thinking process and after thorough research found the best solution! I was happy to conclude that someone had focused his creative mind on creating a waterproof note pad: AquaNotes! It is a completely waterproof notepad that allows you to record your great ideas while you're in the shower. Water simply beads up and rolls-off this waterproof paper. It's so durable you can even write underwater! They're recyclable, environmentally friendly, and the notepad is printed with soy-based ink.
I can highly recommend it to document your moments of genius while under the shower or in bath!

Based on global research by creativity experts, the Top Situations & Locations for Inspiration looks as follows:

1. Shower, bath, bathroom: 57%
2. Bed: 51%
3. Driving: 42%
4. Walking: 28%
5. Exercise, running, swimming: 25%

All of the above situations and locations offer the opportunity for relaxation allowing you to really stretch your creative thoughts, hence why the office or workplace is missing in this top-5. Maybe we should organise workplace innovation brainstorm sessions at a fitness centre, during a bush walk or at a day-spa!

Have fun optimising your creative brainstorm sessions and documenting them, so you’ll succeed faster and better in utilising your new creative ideas!

"Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual." - Arthur Koestler

Thanks, warm regards & success,

Patrick

My Quotes

Besides writing stories, I like to think of and write down inspirational quotes. Every now and then I think of a new one. Some of these quotes I use in the stories on this blog, I tweet some of them on Twitter or I use them in new chapters for the books I am writing.

Below a small selection of my own quotes. I hope they'll inspire you!

• “Most of the things people worry about never happens! If you unworry more often, you will succeed more often!”
• “The best investment anyone can ever make is an investment in oneself!”
• “You can do anything you need if you just believe in it!”
• “Social media should improve your life, not become your life!”
• “Life's too short not to show your love or appreciation to someone or something!”
• “True leadership is the art of creating and clearly communicating your vision, hope, passion, inspiration and the journey you will take your team members on.”
• “Do all things with love, passion and dedication!”
• "Sell like hell and deliver well! So what do you need to succeed?"
• “Whatever you want in your life, the key to your success is to transform your thinking, emotions and behaviour!”
• "The best leaders understand that the Good is the Enemy of the Best!"
• “The difference between being a little successful and being ultimately successful is taking over 100 times more action!”
• “Make your health your top priority. You can't buy your health or life back after years of neglecting it while you earn your living!”
• "Leaders are readers, so lead oneself to read!"
• "If you primarily focus on making money, you will fail in the long-term. If you focus on creating meaning, you will succeed in each and every way!"
• "You can only become a true and successful leader, once you have really lost a couple of times!"
• "Smiling makes your life happier, easier, healthier, more rewarding and... more successful!"
  
• "Sometimes it is best to take time to be quiet and think!"
• "It's healthy to challenge yourself, but not to challenge your health!"
  

Make this a positive & fruitful day...unless you've made other plans!

Warm regards & success,


Patrick Driessen