Photo by Katherine Rountree
“Don’t blame me for falling in love with you,” sang the Audrey Shakir Quartet on Saturday night as Savannah’s week long annual jazz festival came to a close. The audience danced and drank in agreement as the Savannah community relaxed under the Spanish moss of Forsyth Park.
“I heard that a couple of my friends were nearby and so I just walked over,” said Keenan McCarthy, a fourth year industrial design major from New York City. “I really enjoy the Savannah community atmosphere… The jazz fest just becomes one of the things that you end up doing, just going to hang out in the park.”
Rebecca Runyon, a friend of McCarthy and fourth year production design major from Jacksonville, Florida, enjoyed a different aspect of the community atmosphere.
“The background has just been great. We’re dad watching right now, because we’re gonna be dads for Halloween. The people watching is amazing,” said Runyon.
There was a wide variety of people in the audience, all enjoying the festivities in their own way. Some groups brought a whole dining set, complete with a table cloth and wine buckets, around which to enjoy their beverages. Others came with picnic blankets, pizza boxes and young children in tow.
For Lacy Manigault of Savannah, the man behind the operations who has been a member of the Park Board for nine years, the evening is cause to celebrate another year of successfully pulling the whole event together.
“Our goal for the event is to expand and try to pay for everything and not go in debt,” said Manigault.“The festival is going to cost $130,000 to do it this year because everything is free. We don’t sell anything but the beer and the wine and the sodas.”
The budget produced a wide variety of jazzy tunes for attendees to enjoy over the week.
“We do blues night, smooth jazz, jazz and we also have colleges and students performing. We have religious music as well as regular music,” said Manigault.
Manigault also arranged all of the local vendors whose tents stood on the perimeter of the concert grounds, including Savannah favorite Leopold’s Ice Cream, as well as beverages from Costal Brewery.
As the night progressed, the dancing increased and the crowd grew thicker. The music coming from the stage framed by blue and red lights served as a groovy soundtrack for friends and neighbors as they socialized and soaked in the Savannah sunset.
