Tomorrow, Thursday, June 13, from 11am to 4pm, everyone is welcome to come along to the 2024 Jazz Taster Day.

This is the fun first event of the Brecon Jazz Festival, which will take place outside the NPTC Brecon Beacons College ‘Cwtch’ building in the main town car park, and in Bethel Square.

Now a regular event in the annual Brecon Jazz Festival calendar, and with support from the Gwendoline and Margaret Davies Charity, the College and Jazz Team, the Taster Day is organised jointly by the talented NPTC students and the 2024 Festival Planning Group. 

There will be big band sounds, conducted by Ceri Rees, from the music students’ Jazz Ensemble from the Neath campus, while local band Fiddlebop will play their own lively brand of gypsy jazz in Bethel Square. Posters and design work has all been created by visual arts students from the Newtown campus, while hair and beauty students on courses in Brecon will provide make-up for the performers. Project management of the event has been led by Natalie Downton of the College’s Marketing team – herself one of the original ‘Taster Day’ participants who then went on to complete her Business, Management & IT degree, all studied right here in Brecon! And for a special ‘wow’ factor, come along and see the videos, pictures and showreels being shown on our giant TV screen just outside the Cwtch itself.

The Taster Day puts everyone in the mood for a summer season of outstanding music in this famous jazz town.  The 2024 Brecon Jazz Festival will follow over three weekends in August - the 4th, 9th-11th and 17th -18th, with a wide range of indoor and outdoor concerts, films, workshops for children and adults in various great venues all over the town.  

In previous, years the Festival ‘Taster Day’ has been a fun event for participants and audiences alike, with everyone enjoying the spring time music and even some mid-afternoon dancing! Do come along to support this local educational collaboration which is building strength from year to year.