The Knox-Rootabaga Jazz Festival is adapting and returning this year with live, in-person performances after canceling the 40th-anniversary celebration last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Featured performers for the event, which will also be shown online on April 16 and 17, are Soul Message and Greg Ward’s Rogue Parade.
Andy Crawford, managing director of the Knox Jazz Year, says in a release that, “we’re very happy to be able to continue sharing and celebrating music with the Knox and Galesburg communities and beyond.”
Because of the ongoing pandemic, this year’s festivities will look different with a limited number of people being permitted at the live performance.
All events will be held at the Orpheum Theatre on April 16 and 17, with a maximum audience of 70 permitted at each live show. Mask and social distancing protocols will be enforced. Tickets will be sold by the Orpheum for $5, with all proceeds benefiting the theatre.
Student musicians from the Knox Jazz Ensemble and Cherry Street Combo will make a video recording of their performances before the festival. Segments from that video will be presented prior to the live shows on the Orpheum Theatre’s big screen and on the festival’s live stream.
Another traditional part of the festival, jazz musicians performing at area schools, also is happening this year in a modified way. The Tito Carrillo School Tour group will present virtual assemblies to elementary, middle, and high schools throughout the region; given the virtual nature of this year’s Rootabaga Jazz School Tour, these virtual assemblies are available to share with the whole community.
All shows will be live-streamed free on the Knox College YouTube Channel and the CIJS Facebook page from the Orpheum Theatre in Galesburg.
Tickets are on sale now. There will be no door sales, all tickets must be purchased in advance. Single, individual seats are available online.
