We’ve long dreamed of going to the Jazz festival in Marciac; it’s reputed to be the biggest and best in Europe and is only half an hour’s drive from us. Yesterday we finally made it and we weren’t disappointed.

The whole central square of the town is taken over, covered with a huge chapiteau, a sort of pointy tent roof, at one end of which is a stage, facing row upon row of chairs; from 10.30 each morning, until about 7.30 in the evening, there is a series of bands playing, all differing styles of jazz and all free.

Around the edges of the chapiteau is a myriad of mini chapiteaux, parasols and various sun shades, beneath which are stalls selling everything from hats to Indian slippers, vinyl records to books of jazz fingering for guitar, food and drink of every description, clothes and jewellery. Along the length of the side streets radiating from the centre there are more stalls and shops; you get the impression that many of the garages, where the good folks of Marciac normally keep their cars, have been rented out for the duration of the festival and now house art galleries and shops selling jewellery, crafts and hand made guitars, amongst other things.

We sat in the shade to watch a few bands, ambled around, looking at the stalls, had dinner in one of the many restaurants which spill out onto the pavements, then took our seats under the chapiteau to wait for the concert listed for 9pm. As the evening wore on, bands started to play in many of the restaurants around the square. However, it seemed a little odd that the seats weren’t filling up very quickly; in fact, by 9.15, we were still among a very elite group of people sitting there, the piano was still covered up and there were no other instruments on the stage. I asked someone; this was A chapiteau, not THE chapiteau; the main event of the evening was taking place under the most enormous marquee I’ve ever seen, just out of town; it was ticket-only and all 6000 seats were sold. However, we could still see the show as in the bars and restaurant surrounding THE chapiteau there were several TV screens broadcasting it, so we watched Wynton Marsalis and his ensemble, which included all the usual jazz instruments, as well as sitar and tabla.

Our first trip to Jazz in Marciac certainly won’t be our last!