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Well that's the end of the 6th Darwen Jazz & Blues Weekend. We saw and heard some wonderful music over the weekend and I really need to thank a few people who made it all possible. Firstly, the donation from Darwen Town Council enabled me to pay for our brilliant poster and programme design and printing. Tim Jackson designed the artwork and did a fantastic job! Thank you to Number 39 Hopstar Brewery Tap for adding and paying for extra gigs at very short notice. Special thanks to The Crown, The Belgrave, The Black Horse and Deli Carlo for hosting the gigs over the weekend. To all the musicians and DJ's who performed so brilliantly, you were all great! A special mention goes to Steve Childs and Greg Harper for standing in at a moments notice and also to The Hoochie Coochie Band who also played at short notice. Thank you to Su Williams for your vital contribution and Alan Bramley for his constant work on the website and his camera skills for our YouTube channel. Thank you to Benn Robinson for his help with promotion and to everyone who took posters and flyers to work and other places to distribute. The line up at The Crown on Sunday was excellent so a massive thank you to Craig Priestley who assembled that line up. Thank you also to the Lancashire Telegraph for your continued support and finally to all the local businesses who displayed posters and flyers leading up to the event, it is much appreciated.

After six years of running Darwen Jazz & Blues Weekend we have seen some great music! King Pleasure & The Biscuit Boys, The Northern Jazz Orchestra, The SoulTrain, Claude Deppa, Dread Supreme, Hue & Cry, Shakatak, Blind Monk Trio, Kiki DeVille, Marley Chingus, Tom Doughty, The Swing Commanders, The Stumble, The Giddy Gringos, Neil Yates & John Ellis, Justin Randall, Tom Attah and many many more! It is therefore, with sadness that I have taken the decision to to make the 6th Darwen Jazz & Blues Weekend the final one. I will now concentrate on the other events that I am involved with in Darwen and further afield.

To everyone who has been involved with the jazz and blues weekend, past contributors/organisers Paul and Alan Rigby, Terry Walsh, Erica Dobie, Derren Lee Poole, Steven Lindley and Steve Burch - Thank you all very much.

Finally, the biggest thank you of all goes to Julie for putting up with me over the last six years! Not an easy task, I'll tell you!!!

There is still regular live jazz and blues in Darwen at The Crown, Black Horse, The Belgrave and of course Number 39 Hopstar Brewery Tap, click the link for future events.

Please continue to support live music in Darwen, both the venues and the musicians need you!

Yours in music,

Gary Ward