The maiden Abuja Jazz Expo on Saturday witnessed a low turnout of music lovers and revellers.

Participants at the expo attributed the poor turnout to low publicity and the economic crunch in the country.

The News Agency of Nigeria gathered that‎ the expo was meant to give jazz lovers in the capital city a unique blend of jazz music.

The event which started about noon on Saturday, however, witnessed low turnout as most music enthusiasts at the fiesta claimed that the publicity for the event was inadequate and poor.

Val Akapo, a banker, said he was not aware of the event until Saturday morning when a friend told him about it.

He said as a jazz enthusiast, he had always craved for such event in Abuja to no avail.

“I think the low turnout can be ascribed to the low publicity of the event; I’m a jazz lover and love this kind of events.

“In Lagos during the Yuletide, we have a lot of these events with adequate publicity,” he said.

Another reveller, Janaina Coutinho, a tourist from Brazil, said she was so excited to witness such event in Nigeria.

She commended the organisers of the event for the concept and called on government and other stakeholders to support jazz music in Nigeria.

Also commenting, Jacob Jacob from Sweden described the event as unique and different from other shows he had witnessed in Nigeria.

Kim Akpan, a corps member, said she had fun at the show but called for elaborate publicity for such shows.

“We need more publicity for such shows, you know jazz music is a unique music for the matured minds,” she said.

The president, Capital Jazz Expo, Abuja, Ado Ibrahim, said the expo was to create awareness about jazz music in a “carnival-like atmosphere”.

He said the organisation would not be deterred by the low patronage as his vision was to make it an annual event.

He, therefore, called on the federal government and corporate sponsors to support the growth of jazz music in Nigeria.

Mr. Ibrahim expressed optimism that the turnout would be higher on Sunday.

The event has different jazz musicians from across the country thrilling the audience.

Some of the artistes on parade at the show are Yemi Sax from Lagos, Bidemi Treasure, G-sax and Etuk Ibong, the trumpeter.

Side attractions at the event include raffle draws, poetry displays, games and performance by some comedians.

The two-day event was scheduled to end on Sunday in Abuja.

(NAN)