Brecon Jazz Festival to hold ‘Taster Day’ in June with help from NPTC Group of Colleges

The Brecon Jazz Festival (BJF) team is even bigger this year as Festival organisers, Brecon Jazz Club, join forces with Brecon Beacons College (part of the NPTC Group of Colleges). Through an innovative set of agreements, the Festival are providing valuable work opportunities for students, while benefiting from their skills and insights in business, media, music and event management. This work includes a Jazz Festival Taster Day in Brecon on Thursday 9th June, which will feature outdoor music and promote the upcoming August Festival programme.

Staff and students (pictured) of Brecon Beacons College have been busy collaborating with the Brecon Jazz Festival for several months. Higher Education students studying the College’s Business, Management and IT degree have volunteered their time by designing and pitching updates to the Jazz Festival’s website. Meanwhile, the opportunity to collaborate on an event works well with the College’s BTEC Business & Law course, whose students promote and manage an event every year for their coursework. This year that event is the Jazz Festival Taster Day.

From 11am to 4pm on Thursday 9th June, the Taster Day will host outdoor music at The Cwtch, Heol Gouesnou, Brecon. Featured are the College’s Jazz Ensemble band, who are excited to play in front of an appreciative audience after the pandemic. The Brecon Jazz Club will also attend and work with the College to hand out programmes of the upcoming August Festival and take donations for the Festival by cash and a QR code created by the students.

The College’s Business & Law students have also designed an informative poster and ‘showreel’ video of Brecon Jazz’s history. The latter will be shown on a giant display screen throughout the Taster Day to draw people into a truly multi-media show.

For the ‘showreel’, Brecon Jazz Club and the College have been joined by Tantrwm Digital Media, an award-winning Welsh live streaming and video production company who will provide the screen. Brecon Jazz Club and College wish to thank Tantrwm for the screen and thank the Audrey Tyler Trust and Brecon Town Council for grants they awarded to the Jazz Club to resource aspects of the Taster Day.

For people wondering about the Brecon Jazz Festival line-up for August, the Festival team will be announcing this soon. August Festival programmes and other merchandise will be available at the Taster Day. For upcoming announcements, people can also visit www.breconjazz.org.

Meanwhile, any prospective students for NPTC Group of Colleges can apply online now or register for an upcoming open evening at www.nptcgroup.ac.uk.

Romina West, a tutor at the Business, Tourism and Management school in Brecon Beacons College, said:

“All our staff and Business & Law students are really enjoying planning the Taster Day for June 9th. Our degree students for BA Business, Management & IT have also been great; volunteering their time by proposing updates to the Festival’s website.”

“We’re really grateful to the Brecon Jazz team for all their support and enthusiasm so far.”

Kelyn Williams, BTEC Business & Law student at Brecon Beacons College, said:

“Everyone in our Business & Law class thinks working with the Jazz Festival is really fun, and good for our coursework. We’re gaining loads of new experience in the boardroom and in planning an event. We’re playing roles in Management, Marketing, Finance and Health & Safety.”

“Thank you to the team from Brecon Jazz Club and to our tutors, Romina, Robin and Michelle, for all their help. I think we’ve brought some really cool ideas to the Jazz.”

Sharon, Lynne & Roger, organisers of Brecon Jazz Club, said: “The College staff were really enthusiastic about collaborating when we met with them last Autumn to first discuss the idea. This event gives local residents, visitors and businesses a chance to come along and ‘Taste Brecon Jazz’ for a day.”

“Student involvement from the College has been totally impressive and we’ve hugely enjoyed working with such talented young people.”