Ingunn - 20 years in the jazz festival's service

Photo: Thomas Hegna / Text: Ann-Mari Lofthus

Accreditation is the festival's machinery. Here arrangements are made for accreditation of officials and artists, t-shirts, food, officials' passports and storage of instruments. Everything is led by the mature lady, Ingunn Rokstad. This is her twentieth year as an official.

- There have been many Saturdays and Sundays during jazz week where she thinks that "now it's over!", but when it's spring again, the need to work with the jazz festival comes again, says Rokstad. She started on the festival's switchboard service. After a few years it was her turn to become group leader for accreditation, and she has been doing that for many years, so many that she has lost count.

Normally, the accreditation group starts working in the spring. Then a lot is checked, and they start sending out requests. Rokstad works as a teacher, and when school is over for the summer, work on jazz starts in earnest. This year, Kongsberg Jazzfestival has received a new computer system for accreditation, and this is the third system that Ingunn and the officials in the group have had to learn.

- We at Akkreditering are not the first rank. If we have had no complaints, we have done a good job, emphasizes Rokstad.

Photo: Thomas Hegna

When the group's leader changed, there was also a change in the organisation. - Before, there were more watertight bulkheads between the various units that belonged to the group, such as staff, accreditation and switchboard. That's the end of it. Now the members know all the work tasks, and there is a rotation among the officials. It makes us less vulnerable, emphasizes Rokstad.

In step with the number of tickets sold, the organization has also grown. In the past, a few hundred passports had to be laminated, but new technical solutions have made this work redundant. Rokstad is happy about that.

There are several things Ingunn holds out as important for his involvement in the Jazz Festival. - Meeting people. Going to a concert and listening to something you don't normally listen to. I have become very fond of jazz and expanded my musical taste. Something is happening to the city. Being a part of something so important is something she is quite proud to be a part of.

- It has gone from being "are you going to jazz, sort of" to "have you been out?". This is a huge change in attitudes that Rokstad has noticed. In the past, jazz was more for the particularly interested.

Photos: Thomas Hegna

For Ingunn, the Jazz Festival has also been a gateway to a social network in Kongsberg. She moved to Kongsberg, and the festival served as "a cool thing" in relation to new acquaintances. Another important thing that the festival promotes is building bridges between the generations.
- Here, younger and older people work together in the group, and there is no difference if you are 65 or 15. There are far too few such arenas, Rokstad points out. And shows that everyone is appreciated, regardless of age.

- Jazz is fun, but tiring, especially at the beginning of jazz week. Working on accreditation also means being a tutor. The festival has become more professional, and is no longer characterized by ad hoc solutions and benefits. This means that there is no longer as much gravel in the machinery.

In conclusion, the head of accreditation makes a call for computer literate men to also apply for accreditation so that the group will more closely reflect the society of which jazz is a part.

We congratulate Ingunn on 20 years in the service of jazz! (ed. comm.)