This story has been corrected. 

If you’ve been buying Club Passes for the Jazz Festival, would you buy one if the Kilbourn Hall concerts weren’t included and you had to pay extra for them?

A survey on the Jazz Festival’s app includes that question, and on the event’s last night, it had some festival-goers buzzing. Are the festival’s producers seeking ways to bring in more revenue? Has Kilbourn’s owner, the University of Rochester, raised the rent?

“Nothing of the sort,” says festival spokesperson Jean Dalmath. The producers are “just getting a feel” for concert-goers’ opinion. “We’ve had people suggest making it ticketed with reserved seating, so people don’t need to wait in line and can see other shows instead of waiting,” Dalmath said.

The nine-day festival offers three types of concerts: free outdoor events, ticketed headliner events in Kodak Hall, and Club Pass shows at other venues. The pass, which cost $194 this year, provides free admission to Club Pass events, but there’s no reserved seating or guaranteed entry.

Kilbourn Hall in the Eastman Theatre complex routinely hosts some of the top jazz artists. Consequently, those concerts are frequently standing-room-only, and lines can start forming as early as 3 o’clock for 6 o’clock concerts. And for some concert-goers, a long wait in line is physically difficult. The survey, Dalmath said, will help the producers “assess demand for options.”

This article appears in Jun 24-30, 2015.

Mary Anna Towler is a transplant from the Southern Appalachians and is editor, co-publisher, and co-founder of City. She is happy to have converted a shy but opinionated childhood into an adult job. She...

4 replies on “A change in Jazz Festival’s Club Passes?”

  2. Adrian, the survey is only available on the Jazz Fest app. We’re changing the story now to be clearer. Thanks!

  3. Absolutely terrible idea. What are they thinking? Not only would this spit in the face of people who buy the club passes, asking them to pay the same amount for less shows and then be expected to cough up even more money if they want to see a Kilbourn show, it would also be stupid in actual audience behavior. Only a few of the Kilbourn shows were genuine sell-outs this year– particularly those later in the week had a lot of empty seats. Charge audiences (who have already spent a lot on club passes and headliners) more for those shows, and you’re pretty much guaranteeing paying bands to play to a virtually empty theater. If standing in long lines is the real concern, have the Kilbourn shows expand to a 6:00, an 8:00, and a 10:00– three shows instead of two. That should help solve that problem, and won’t screw over the Jazz Festival’s passholders.

  4. MY response on the survey was I would consider continuing to purchase the Club Pass, but I would expect that Club Pass holders would receive a sizable (50%) discount compared to non Club Pass holders for Kilbourn shows. It would be worth it to me not to have to line up at 3 PM as we did early in the Festival.

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