IMPORTANT INFORMATION: PLEASE READ BEFORE COMPLETING THIS APPLICATION!
Clarence Jazz Festival, now in it's 29th year, is Lutruwita's (Tasmania) largest and longest running jazz festival. We are strongly committed to showcasing the best musical talent the country has to offer, with a strong focus on the wonderful diversity within our community.
Use this form if you are a musician or ensemble interested in performing at the 2025 Clarence Jazz Festival. The Festival will be held from the 20th-23rd February at various locations around the beautiful City of Clarence in Southern Lutruwita (Tasmania). You may be programmed at any point within this 5 day period, although please indicate if certain days/ times won't work for you or your group.
This year, we have 4 application streams for you to choose from. You can apply for more than one stream:
General Program: This group makes up the bulk of our programming, featuring the finest established musical acts ranging from traditional to experimental jazz, funk, blues, soul and music influenced by traditions from around the globe. We pay industry standard rates of $250 per musician per set.
Emerging Program: We are proud to celebrate and support the next generation of jazz talent. Apply for this stream if you have never performed at the Clarence Jazz Festival and/or you're in your first 3 years of professional practice. In addition to your appearance fees you'll recieve great kickbacks from the festival, including Access All Areas passes and invaluable networking opportunities.
Jazz Hothouse: Provides seed funding of up to $2,000 (+ your appearance fee) and in kind support towards the development of new work for presentation at the festival. We are particularly focussed on supporting new collaborations and work that pushes the boundaries.
School group/ community band: We recognise the incredibly important work done by our local school and community jazz ensembles in providing life-long engagement in music for members of our community. We want to celebrate and platform you-- so please get in touch if you'd like to be involved in CJF 2025!
Applications close Thursday 29th of August @ 5pm
For more information or questions regarding your application call:
Bek Varcoe 6217 9609 or email rvarcoe@ccc.tas.gov.au
Stevie McEntee 6217 9624 or email smcentee@ccc.tas.gov.au
FAQs
How is my application assessed?
Once the application date has passed all applications are reviewed by the festival programming team. This team comprises of people with vast and diverse experience in the live music and theatre industries as performers, presenters, producers and festival directors.
The panel considers all applications and may make selections for the festival program based on the following criteria:
- Conceptual strength of application and musical quality as demonstrated by support material.
- Curatorial appropriateness of act within the wider program, venue and budget context.
- Appeal to the festival’s regular audiences and/or ability for the act to encourage a new sector to engage with the festival.
- Contribution of the act towards strengthening the diversity of our sector (see below for more details).
- Freshness of material or frequency of act’s appearance at recent Clarence Jazz Festivals. Year-on-year we aim to present new acts or existing ensembles presenting new projects or material. We cannot guarantee consecutive annual appearances for the same bands presenting similar material to previous years.
Please note: Clarence Jazz Festival is committed to supporting the growing diversity of our music sector, both on and off stage. Applications are strongly encouraged from people who identify as First Nations, from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, people living with disability, women and gender diverse folk, LGBTQIA+ people, older musicians, emerging musicians and people living and working in regional and remote areas.
My act isn’t based in Lutruwita (Tasmania). Can I still apply?
Absolutely! We love to hear from interstate acts and are firmly committed to encouraging networking and collaboration across the country and internationally. Our interstate travel budget isn’t huge, so please let us know if you’re planning to include an appearance at the festival as part of a funded tour or if you’re in a position to make a contribution towards your travel expenses. We are happy to connect you with other venues and presenters across Lutruwita (Tasmania) to make a trip to our island more viable, however we request that you do not play in the greater Nipaluna (Hobart) area within 3 days of the start and end date of the festival.
In the spirit of cross-border collaboration and learning if your act can present a masterclass/ workshop/ interactive panel discussion about your work please provide details of what that might look like in your application text.
What sort of appearance fees can I expect?
We are proud to provide musicians with a unique performance experience that looks and sounds great, and offer a baseline industry standard wage as recommended by the Australian Musician’s Union – a minimum of $250 per musician per 50 minute set. Please indicate in this application if your act will require more than this.
In line with ATO standards we also pay 12.5% superannuation on all artist fees. This means we require each artist to submit their superannuation details and invoice us directly for their fees. More information will be available about this process if your act is selected for the festival.
What happens next?
Applications close on August the 29th 2024. Our panel will assess all applications and aim to notify applicants about the outcome by Thursday September 12th.
Unsuccessful applicants will be notified by email by the middle of September. We will be available to provide feedback on unsuccessful applications upon request. We ask that applicants respect the curatorial decision of the panel.
Successful applicants will be notified by phone. Based on your indicated availability and our scheduling decisions you’ll be offered a negotiable time and date for your performance.
Why do I need to provide support material?
Support material helps demonstrate your band’s musical and artistic quality. It is essential that your support material has relevance to your application. We don’t expect support material to be of professional recording/ video quality, please submit material that you think represents your act accurately and well.