Unique Skills Necessary for Connecticut Jazz Festival

The Litchfield Jazz Festival is a weekend-long extravaganza of straight-ahead jazz concerts in the lush and verdant hill country of northwest Connecticut. This August, the festival celebrated its 14th season with a full schedule of 13 main stage performances from top stars such as Jane Monheit, Bucky Pizzarelli and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Meanwhile, students attending the Festival’s Jazz Camp performed concerts of their own in additional venues. All told, approximately 5,000 music lovers were in attendance over a busy three days.

For the second year, Securitas USA was contracted to provide security service. “They cover the entire event from managing our parking and roads to protecting the backstage and the artists,” says Jessica Morozowich, Litchfield Jazz Festival’s Assistant Director.  “They also helped protect our money by serving as bodyguards for our cash carriers and monitoring anyplace that houses merchandise. And they do checks of coolers – we don’t allow glass or alcohol.  Our biggest security concerns are theft and crowd control, and Securitas helps to oversee the safety and protection of everyone while being sensitive to the needs of our patrons.” 

“One of the most important requirements for our security team is the ability to contain problems quickly,” she notes.  “Issues need to be taken care of quietly and efficiently.  We want the feeling of protection without anyone feeling hounded.”  She details an incident with an audience member who was acting inappropriately.  “The head officer noticed his behavior and wanted to make me aware of the situation.  We were able to address the issue before he started trouble and prevent a situation that could have gotten very uncomfortable.”

Hiring contract security for a festival – or any special event – requires a different set of priorities.  There is no time for a learning curve, progress reports or feedback; instead, security officers need to be able to think on their feet and act quickly to solve a whole range of potential problems.

This year, the most immediate issue was the rainy weather that plagued the northeast throughout the summer.  “On Friday afternoon as the gates were ready to open, our field flooded and our main stage started to go,” recalls Morozowich.  The concerts were relocated to the rain location – a nearby hockey rink – which required moving the stage, the Steinway piano and the lighting and sound equipment as well as 1500 chairs.  Securitas, she says, stepped up to the challenge by doing a lot more than their preliminary duties; officers pitched in wherever they could to help carry  the piano across the grounds, lay out hay in the parking lot, and organize a shuttle to ferry concert-goers to the new location.  “We had a great team who were literally ready to get themselves dirty digging cars out of the mud, and, at the same time, were great at helping out people in the audience.”


“Because we are a non-profit and really need to watch our budget, Securitas’ ability to go above and beyond is something we really value,” explains Morozowich.  “Having someone who does what needs to be done is huge when you’re doing events run with a small staff.”

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