Jazz Garden offers the purists a haven

The Dubai Jazz Festival's Jazz Garden will host nightly performances just outside the gates leading to the main stage.

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The action on the big stage is not all the festival offers. Since 2009 the Jazz Garden has been a haven for purists. During the forthcoming festival, the garden - located just outside the gates leading to the main stage - will host nightly performances, with headliners including Paul Brown, the jazz guitarist Marc Antoine and the vocalist and harmonica player Brian Templeton.

Anthony Younes, the chief executive of the festival organisers Chillout Productions, explains the Jazz Garden was created to balance the demands of the eclectic crowds. "It is about creating different moods for different people," he says. "It has intimacy, it can have a party mood, it can feel like a small club but with three to four thousand people."

Younes says it manages to be intimate despite large crowds. "We want to make it different from just going to a concert," he says. "People can come not knowing the music, but still leave relaxed and knowing they saw great entertainment."

Younes says the festival is still a long way from showcasing jazz-only acts. "I get so many messages on Facebook telling me to bring more jazz acts and when we bring them not many are excited," he says. "I think Dubai and the UAE are still not ready for a jazz festival, that's why we have to bring some pop names otherwise we won't survive. By bringing the big names we make it financially viable."

Tickets to the Jazz Garden are Dh100 and shows begin at 8pm

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