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Celebrate the New Year with Guelph Jazz

1. A Rebel New Year 2010

We're throwing our first ever New Year's Eve party this year - partly to have a good time, partly as a festival fundraiser. We've hired Rebel Rhythm (they had people dancing in the aisles at the Jazz Tent this year), and have rounded up Rebel Foods (Salsateria) for the food. We promise to bombard your senses and lighten your mood for the coming year.

Rebel Rhythm is a local and Toronto-based band that plays Latin and funk music, with a mix of jazz and soul harmonies, for a pretty intoxicating sound. (Hear them at our website.) In between band sets, we'll also have a great DJ, to keep the dancing happening with a mixture of styles. It takes place at Mitchell Hall, in the lower level of St. George's Church (a favourite festival venue).

Tickets: $40 per person, $75 per couple, $30/person for groups of 10 or more. Get your tickets starting Wed. Nov. 25 at one of these outlets:

• Bookshelf: 41 Quebec Street, Guelph
• Flying Dance Company: 199 Victoria Road, at York
• Guelph Jazz Festival: 519.763-4952, or us your request, with full name, number and tickets required (we'll call you back for payment)

Don't delay. Tickets are limited by the size of our venue.

2. 2009 Festival Survey winners

We had an excellent response to our first-ever online survey, which we launched just after the festival. We learned many things, including:

• over half our audience is local
• most people learn about the festival through word of mouth
• almost everyone consults our web site before attending
• two-thirds of our audience eat at a local restaurant during the festival
• a majority also ate at the jazz tent (to overwhelmingly positive reviews)

We thank all the survey participants, and we'll be sending 2009 festival T-shirts to the following lucky five people, drawn at random from those who participated:

• Maida de Stein, Guelph
• Mark Rieger, Toronto
• Sherri Weber, Montreal
• Patrick Frisco, Oak Park, Michigan
• Bill Watson, Toronto
  

3. Guelph Food Bank dance drive at Flying Dance

Our partners at Flying Dance Company are offering free dance classes during the week of Dec. 7-10, in exchange for a donation to the Guelph Food Bank. (What a great way to learn some new dance steps, in preparation for our Rebel New Year party!) They offer salsa, west coast swing, ballroom, Latin cardio, bellydance, pilates, zumba and more. For more info, scroll to the bottom of their home page, or check out their weekly schedule.