More on the 2007 St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival's plans to "scale back"

In a post earlier in the week, StLJN linked to an item from last weekend's Post about plans to "scale back" the 2007 edition of the US Bank St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival. And while I haven't yet been able to speak with anyone from Cultural Festivals, the producers of the event, to get more details, some recent updates to the festival Web site shed some light on a couple of the questions posed in that post.

What's most notable about the festival site is what isn't there - specifically, it looks as if US Bank, the festival's lead sponsor for the last couple of years, is no longer involved. The event is now referred to as simply the Saint Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival, and there's no mention at all of US Bank on the sponsor page, or anywhere else on the site.

Losing the lead sponsor would certainly explain cutting back for 2007. But that in turn raises the question of exactly when the split occured, and what's been done, or is being done, to try to secure a replacement. With experienced producers in place, good reviews, and significantly increased attendance last year, one would think there's got to be at least one corporate entity somewhere willing to step up and buy the naming rights.

(Anheuser-Busch, I'm lookin' at you. A-B spends vast amounts of money on music and event marketing, and while the cost of a lead sponsorship for a festival of this type is no doubt substantial by the standards of us grubby artistic types, it's probably less that the donut budget for the crew that shot the last Budweiser spot. OK, I'm being somewhat facetious there, but it sure would be nice if the fine folks down at Pestalozzi St. would drop just a little bit more of that music-and-event cash on a deserving event right in their hometown )

One more thing is clear, though: the 2007 festival will indeed be a one-day event, held from noon to 10 p.m. on Saturday, June 2. No word yet on how many stages there will be, or what the lineup of performers will be, but StLJN will have additional updates as I'm able to find out more.