Monterey Jazz Festival adds grass to enhance concertgoers’ experience

The Monterey Jazz Festival is set to open Friday, and this year there are some new additions.

For instance, the addition of grass.

In a time when most people and places are removing or replacing grass, rather than adding it, it might seem strange that the festival is taking this step now.

But festival organizers say it’s all about enhancing the spectators’ experience.

For the first time in 56 years, the Monterey Jazz Festival is adding sod, because the dirt underneath the area creates for a very dusty experience for the audience.

“Dust has been a problem over the years,” said artistic director Tim Jackson. “We thought wouldn’t it be aesthetically nice, help the dust issue and just make it a more comfortable environment to try some sod this year.”

He said the sod was brought in a few days ago and will be brought back out next week.

The grass, which cost about $15,000 to install, has only been watered once since it was put in and won’t need any additional watering throughout the weekend, festival organizers said.

Jackson said they looked into using artificial turf instead, but using real grass sod seemed to be the best option — and the most cost-effective one.

“I think in the end, the limited amount of watering that might take — with the benefits that we might get from the patron experience and how much nicer it would make the festival, it seemed like a good trade-off,” said Tim Jackson, the festival’s artistic director.

Once the festival is done, they hope to donate the sod to people who need grass – though they haven’t found any takers yet.

Meanwhile, Jackson said he expects the festival to draw crowds of up to 40,000 this year — even without a major sponsor for yet another year.

“We don’t have a large sponsor now, but we do work with other companies, and have smaller sponsorships,” Jackson said. “We hope to get more of those and try and draw as many jazz fans as we can.

He hopes the appeal of the grass will help attract audiences to fill the
6,000-seat arena.

The Monterey Jazz Festival celebrates its 57th year this weekend, with a full slate of performances from Friday, Sept. 19 through Sunday, Sept. 21.