How many concerts could you stand in one afternoon? Before August I’d have said two, perhaps three; that four would have my backside numb and five would see my mind wandering. Well, apparently I would have been wrong, and I can actually manage six: that’s how many sets the Pershore audience enjoyed and—despite the seniority of most patrons present—things were livelier by the end than in the beginning.
Pershore Jazz Festival used to be a three-day affair, with camping on the local college’s sports field and food served in its refectory until the small hours. Sadly, since reopening after COVID, the college has decided that it no longer wants to host the campers and caravaners who travelled from all over the UK—up to 750 people per day—so the festival committee had to find another way.
In 2022 a longstanding member, the late Keith Nichols, came up with an ambitious one-day programme cramming six gigs into a single summer afternoon. Now in its fourth year, the compressed jazz festival still manages to near-fill Pershore theater Number 8, with its two hundred-odd seats, from lunchtime to late evening.
And with a line-up like this one, there’s little wonder. For a tiny Worcestershire town unknown to me until last year, Pershore pulls in the stars. In 2025 this included Michael McQuaid, the Australian reedman extraordinaire who has made London his home. Joining him i
