So what does moving the Highline Classic Jazz Festival to the historic Landmark Event Center in Des Moines mean?
For festival goers it means more bands in two elegant auditoriums, dancing, jam sessions, and full dinner service.
“It will be more of a party atmosphere and less of a concert atmosphere,” declared festival founder and director Lance Haslund. “And it’s an absolutely fabulous bargain—11 bands for $35.”
The fourth annual jazz festival will be held Saturday, March 10 at the Landmark, 23660 Marine View Dr. S., from 3- 10 p.m. The event is a sponsored by Burien Arts.
Haslund acknowledges that there are many fine music festivals in the Puget Sound region.
“But this is the only place in the greater Seattle area that celebrates the first half-century of jazz,” he noted.
There will be New Orleans and Chicago style hot jazz, also known as Dixieland, plus Gypsy ballads, big band jazz form the 1920s, western swing and straight ahead classics.
Performers include Del Rey and Matt Weiner, Mt. Rainier High School Jazz Band, Pearl Django, Glen Crytzer and His Syncopators, Holtraband, The Jangles, Uptown Lowdown Jazz Band and the Jennifer Scott Trio.