Readers of Thomas Hardy may refer to the town slightly indulgently as Knollsea. To everyone else it’s Swanage.
For jazz fans the Dorset town is renowned for its festival, and this three-day event is unusual in that while it is liberally coated in antedeluvian trad jazz the long running Swanage Jazz Festival is grown up enough these days to include plenty of more modern mainstream and contemporary styles by an eclectic range of performers. Usually, without being too unfair, the trad jazz festival scene elsewhere shies away from anything lacking a banjo or sousaphone. No hankies on the head required, really, but rest assured traddies there is at least one variety of pigfoot in store among the newer acts. Ian Shaw, Zoe Gilby, the Kofi-Barnes Aggregation, Bobby Wellins, Arun Ghosh, above, Tim Garland, and yes Chris Batchelor and Paul Clarvis’ Pigfoot are among the 8-10 July line-up.