Smitty: True.
MS: And the size of the park, to get up and go enjoy the jazz village is not like 500 yards away or 200 yards away or a long walk. It’s a short walk. Everything is condensed in that park. It’s easy to get to the restrooms, it’s easy to get something to eat, it’s easy to visit the vendors and get back to your place for the show. It’s just an energy that overlays a small area that you just cannot be missing. You become it, you contribute to it, and it affects everybody in a positive way.
Smitty: Yes, we all become a part of it.
MS: Yeah.
Smitty: I mean, it’s beautiful, and I must say, Michael, you guys have some of the best vendor booths I have seen in a long time. Man, incredible crafts and beautiful things.
MS: Aren’t those vendors…? They’re exceptional.
Smitty: Yeah, great people.
MS: And we have a screening process. We don’t let everybody in. We try only to let the crème de la crème vendor in. They show up with really beautiful art, really beautiful clothing, all kinds of unique vendors, and always several surprises every year.
Smitty: Yeah, I mean, I’ve always been impressed by that and, in fact, I’ve said this so many times to different people that are talking about going out there. It’s amazing, the vendor booths, and the people that are working in those booths are just beautiful people. I mean, great personalities and just so helpful. Man, I love that little vendor village you work out every year.
MS: It’s one of my favorite parts of the event, it’s when the sun starts to go down, I take the camera around to the vendor booths and talk to the vendors, many of whom have been with us for ten or better years, and they’re all smiles and they’re all happy and there’s people shopping, and it’s very colorful to take that walk down the promenade into our vendor village because the vendors are to your left and they’re to your right and you can see everything that’s going on and everyone’s just having a really good time.
Smitty: Absolutely, a lotta fun. Man, so now how can people get tickets?
MS: We have several ways of getting tickets. First of all, I want to give my Web site.
Smitty: Yes.
MS: Which I think is very important to visit. It’s www.yourjazz.com. You go to that and find ticketing information in a green triangle and it’ll take you to the different ways of getting the tickets, but essentially, if you’re in Las Vegas you can buy them at Mr. Bill’s Pipe & Tobacco stores or the UNLV Performing Arts Center box office, but most of what we do, we have such a great amount of tourism come into the event year after year. The festival for a number of years has had its own 800 number, being 1-800-969-VEGAS. Now we know that’s one too many letters or one too many numbers. We use that as a way for you to remember 1-800-969-VEGAS. Just put the “S” in, punch it in and your phone’s not gonna react. It’ll just connect you, you know, no big deal.
The other way is on the Web site you can purchase tickets on the Internet by going to Tickets West. There’s a button that’ll put you right to Tickets West and you can buy them online or, let’s say, you may purchase them on our 800 number 24/7. The day of the event we have a box office set up outside. The nice part about the festival is that kids 12 and under are free when they’re accompanied by a paying adult, and 13 and on, I suppose, 13 through I think it’s 18 are $20 at the gate the day of the event.
Smitty: Oh wow.
MS: Ticket prices are $60 for a GA [General Admission] show and $110 for a VIP ticket.We have discount tickets for two-day passes. Those are limited. And all tickets are subject to service charges and any taxes. We have a VIP Early Bird Ticket.
Smitty: Okay.
MS: And the VIP Early Bird Ticket allows you to get into the festival each day much earlier. You can check the Web site for that time or your actual ticket when you purchase it. And it gives you first cut at the lay of the land.
Smitty: I like that.
MS: Right down the center. It also gives you executive water flushing facilities and it gives you your own VIP cash bar. The General Admission Ticket allows you to come into the park after the VIP area have been secured and it gives you your own GA bar and your restrooms are out in front of the park.
But one thing for sure is very important: that we are going to have a policy this year about high back chairs. We want all of the fans who have attended this festival for so long to understand that we are finally going to enforce no high back chairs in the park. We’re just asking everyone to please cooperate. Everybody’s packed in there and having a good time and it’s no fun to have somebody to have a high back chair in front of you, so bring low back chairs so that everybody can see because our security will have to enforce that.
Smitty: Yeah, that’s only the right thing to do.
MS: And it is absolutely the right thing.
Smitty: Yeah, if you paid your hard earned money to see a good show, you certainly wanna do just that: see a great show and not look at the back of someone’s chair, so that’s the right thing to do, yeah, absolutely. Well, Michael, my goodness, this has just got my excited juices flowing. I’m looking forward to it.
MS: It’ll always be a pleasure to see you every year at the festival, Smitty. You’re a highlight to have come out.
Smitty: Oh, thank you, and it’s a pleasure and, man, I can’t say enough about how much fun I have each year out there in Las Vegas at the festival and then at the shows on The Strip and all the other great things that Vegas has to offer.
MS: You are the consummate example of why we do this.
Smitty: Thank you, Michael. That’s a very serious compliment, I appreciate it very much.
MS: So at any price, people have never complained. They think the event is a wonderful event with Las Vegas as a backdrop, and tickets do go fast because there is only 2,500 tickets available a day, so it’s not like where they have a lot of tickets and they know that they have to secure their place there at the event.
