It’s just been announced that Satchmo SummerFest event in early August is leaving its home of the last 15 years at the Old U.S. Mint, and is moving to Jackson Square.

Last year was the first year that Satchmo SummerFest was a ticketed event. We suppose that it’s easier to collect an entrance fee at Jackson Square (the charge is a nominal $5.00), as well as put in food and beverage tents. The Square is much larger than the grounds at the Old U.S. Mint, plus there will be an indoor stage this year as well that’s located in the Louisiana State Museum’s Arsenal (600 St. Peter Street, 2nd floor). The “Back o’ Town” stage will offer a cool place to enjoy the festival’s music.

One of the main reasons that the fest has been held at the Old U.S. Mint is the facility’s air-conditioned premises as well as the very nice seminar room that accommodates the Festival’s symposium and speakers. This year, the seminars and Satchmo Symposium will take place in Le Petit Theatre, which is actually larger and also offers the ambience of restaurant Tableau, adjacent.

Satchmo SummerFest has always had great potential of attracting a much larger international audience of jazz lovers—and they are legion all around the world. But the event has never reached its full potential to market to these jazz lovers.

Obviously, a festival that’s devoted to the memory and music of Louis Armstrong would seem to be most well-suited to a location in Armstrong Park, but French Quarter Festivals (FQF), which produces Satchmo, has not ever planned to move the festival there, which is arguably its best location. The thorny issue at Armstrong Park is that FQF claims there is no place close by to hold the Symposium (has FQF investigated the Treme Community Center?), nor could a cover charge probably be charged for an entrance fee, since this is the way the that FQF is now able to help support the Festival (Satchmo was a free festival until last year, when a $5.00 entrance fee was initiated. That will also apply this year as well).

It’s unfortunate that a festival named after Louis Armstrong can’t take place in the park that is his namesake, and the real birthplace of the history of the city’s music (Congo Square). Now that would make a real splash.