The Swanage Jazz Festival is a non-profit jazz festival run by a group of fans who continue to organise and promote the event two decades after their first attempt.  This year's festival takes place from Friday 13th until Sunday 15th July 2012 at a variety of venues around the town.  It features most kinds of jazz played today and gives fans the chance to hear bands and styles they would be unlikely to hear in the normal course of local jazz club gigs. The venues are close together so you can sample everything, from New Orleans, Dixieland, swing, bebop, post bop, "contemporary" and bands that are definitely jazz but defy classification. As ever the contrast of old and new is a definitely appreciated and with weekend of top class jazz next to a relaxed seaside setting makes Swanage Jazz festival irresistible.