blue note festival 2006

The near-full Blue Note Festival programme has been determined. I've never been, but I'm going to try to make it this year. It takes place from the 13th to the 23rd of July. The combined friday-saturday-sunday ticket for the "real jazz" part of the festival is extremely appealing:

Friday: Robert Glasper Trio, Kris Defoort Sound Plaza, Andrew Hill Quintet, Masada
Saturday: Washington / Vann / Galland, Eric Legnini Trio, Jason Moran & The Bandwagon, Wayne Shorter Quartet
Sunday: Paolo Fresu Quintet, Nathalie Loriers, Romano-Sclavis-Texier, Charles Lloyd ‘Sangam’

As usual, the "All That Jazz?" part is less interesting, but friday's triple-bill of Tony Allen, Chucho Valdés and Cesaria Evora stands out.

That would make for a combined bill of 83 euros. Value for money (just over 5 euros per concert), sure, but I've become increasingly anti-festival over the years. At least there aren't any overlapping sets at the BNF, but even then, I don't really feel like listening to four concerts in a row, especially when every single one of them could provide a substantial evening's worth of music on its own. I don't even feel like asking for an accreditation: I'd rather pay and just write about it informally here. I can never get motivated for festival write-ups, oddly.

I think Jacques has been to the BNF before, what do you think of it? Does it take place under a tent or in a hall? Is a 45 minute break enough to digest Andrew Hill and prepare for Masada? To recover from the Bandwagon and open your mind for Wayne Shorter?