Chairman Mixon presenting the budget approval for JAB Fest.

On Tuesday, Jan. 27, the CRA board approved budget request of $15,000 for the Jazz, Arts and Blues Festival that will take place downtown in Festival Park in October 2015. The request was presented by Chairman, Keith Mixon, who originally presented a budget request of $20,000 to the board. Last year, the board only approved a budget request of $7,500. The total budget this year for JAB Fest is $46,000. Of that $46,000, about $20,000 is for band expenses, a big jump from last years band expense of 13,000.

“These bands will normally book events like this for about 15,000 to 20,000 dollars each,” said Mixon.

Mixon then explained how JAB Fest is an economic advantage for Live Oak and the other benefits the festival would have on the community.

“This is not all music folks,” said Mixon. “This is economic development, this is a social opportunity for our local folks, this is exposing this city and this county to the folks outside of it.”

Councilman John Yulee started the discussion by asking how many sponsors JAB Fest had. Last year, the festival had around 15 sponsors and is confident they will have the same amount, if not more for the 2015 festival.

Councilman Frank Davis asked if the budget request was a proposed change to budget amendment, that was on that nights agenda. The budget that was presented in the budget amendment for JAB Fest was $15,000.

“Before we finished the budget for JAB Fest, I thought we were only at $30,000, but we went right past that in a hurry,” said Mixon.

Councilman Jacob Grantham wanted to know where the extra $5,000 dollars was going to come from. The total budget the board had sat aside for all festival events was $30,000. $10,000 for Freedom  Festival, $5,000 for Raid on the Suwannee, $15,000 for JAB Fest, and $10,000 for First Friday Night (an event that was approved by the council at the meeting). After realizing this request would affect the budget amendment, the board moved to it before approving any request for JAB Fest.

Once the board discussed the budget amendment, they voted to approve all the festival’s budget, as is, leaving JAB Fest at $15,000.