John Ernesto, GM of the Boscov’s Berks Jazz Fest, shares his philosophy for success.

Boscov's Berks Jazz Fest Backstage Pass

Let’s begin at the beginning with John Ernesto, the General Manager of the Boscov’s Berks Jazz Fest. He has been involved since the beginning 26 years ago when The Arts Council and The Visitor’s Bureau and area hotels wanted to put together a Jazz Festival. It was meant to be a cultural art experience to draw people to Berks County during a slower time of year. 4 years later John Ernesto took over and learned along the way. It started as a weekend event, it expanded to a 10 day event to celebrate the 10th Anniversary and that format has continued to this day. The economic impact on Berks County is between 8 and 10 million dollars. Now the challenge is to keep people and artists coming back every year. The enthusiasm doesn’t wane. It has become a real destination for music fans. We try to keep the Boscov’s Berks Jazz Festival fresh so artists are brought back in different contexts. The fans come back every year because they trust us. It’s kind of like a jazz cruise on land. The artists mingle with the fans whether at a restaurant or a hotel lobby. Another staple of the Boscov’s Berks Jazz Fest is the midnight music jams. Musicians love to join the jam even after already performing multiple shows throughout the day and fans stay up through the wee hours of the morning to enjoy the music. The Jams will be held at Bldg 24 this year. John Ernest attributes the lasting success to this, “A simple philosophy is take care of the artists, take care of the fans, and everything else will take care of itself”. And so John and his team will do that again this year. John adds the biggest challenge is coordinating the artist availability and schedules. Manhattan Transfer, Take 6, Mavis Staples, an All-star cast performing the music of James Brown, Bela Fleck and Chick Corea, and child prodigy pianist Joey Alexander are just some of this year’s highlights.