Quality music and inclusion, for Herts and north London
The Watford Jazz Junction Festival 10-18 May 2025
Show Tickets on sale now
OUR VALUES
Our organisation is built around 3 core beliefs, valuing: inclusion, mental-wellbeing, and quality. Here, our Festival Director and founder Chris Newstead, expands on what that means in the context of our festival and ongoing shows.
​​​
We’re about our community: putting on great shows for residents & visitors, embracing the support of our businesses and organisations, and having fun!
​​
Inclusion
​
Jazz offers the opportunity for inclusion with the breadth of styles it reflects, as well as the diversity of people who play and hear it.
​​​
And, increasingly as we all connect – digitally and in person – genres of music, including jazz, blur and cross lines, especially amongst a younger generation of composers, performers and listeners.
​​
We want to provide a musical junction, through which people of all ages and backgrounds are included, can meet and take the paths they choose.​​
​​
Mental wellbeing
​​
Research proves that music improves our mental wellbeing, especially when encountered in the places where we live and work.
​
Through hearing music that we like, or can link back to other experiences, our brains and bodies act, releasing natural opioids with neurons reacting and cells responding.
​​​​
Enabling live musical performances can help people to absorb rhythm, harmony and melody in settings that suit them. ​​Ultimately, we want people to enjoy awesome live shows locally – be that therapeutic(!), or otherwise.
​​​
Quality
​​
There seems no universal answer for what makes certain music stand out. But we all treasure songs and performances that have reached us with a greater resonance, perhaps because of where, how, and who we heard play it.
​​​
Asa result, we want to create the best possible environment for enjoying music.
​​​​
So, we look to enable high quality events: enabling a welcoming atmosphere, ensuring briliant sound production, and working with the most talented musicans.​​