Article by: Gord Goble

Dragon boats and jazz music.

An unusual combo to be sure, but one that comes into focus every September in Penticton when the long-running Pentastic Hot Jazz and Music Festival and similarly resilient Penticton Dragon Boat Festival unfold on the very same dates.

It’s an end-of-summer tourist explosion and it all went down for 2025 this past weekend when the 24th edition of the former and the 27th iteration of the latter simultaneously combined to dominate the city.

Editors’ Picks Okanagan dropped by both and came away with the same opinion we’re held for years—that together they deliver some of the best photo ops of the summer.

Friday evening it was all about the jazz. We began our tour at the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre where, like previous years, the facility was divided into two distinct nightclub-ish venues: “Bourbon Street” and the “French Quarter.”

Next up it was the upper floor of the Penticton Elks Hall, converted into the “Cotton Club.”

After Midnight, photo provided by Gord Goble

The musicianship was, as always, sublime. The event is no stranger to top-notch players, and the returning acts we saw—”After Midnight,” “Tom Rigney and Flambeau” and “Dave Bennett & The Memphis Speed Kings”—were, unsurprisingly, mightily impressive.

But these guys know how to work a stage too.

Rigney, especially, is a glorious madman up there, tossing his blond-gray mane and his violin about like he’s just been electrocuted. He puts even the most showy rock and roller to shame.

“We love this festival,” said the 50-year violin veteran and Berkeley, California native just prior to hitting the stage.

“It’s the people who come out—a bunch of music lovers enjoying great music all weekend in a beautiful setting in a part of the world we otherwise wouldn’t be visiting. What’s not to love?”

But as spectacular as Rigney was, there were two Speed Kings giving him a run for his money.

One was bassist Joe Jazdzewski, who continually muscled his giant standup bass into positions that seemingly defied gravity.

The other was Bennett himself, a straight-up virtuoso wrapped up in a hyper-buff Jerry Lee Lewis façade.

Bennett dazzles on the piano, one minute pulling off complex patterns then the next jumping up on his stool to pound the keys from above, singing all the while.

Then the next he’s calmly standing center stage, blowing a clarinet like Benny Goodman.

It’s versatile stuff, daddio.

If there’s a downside, it’s that the festival currently isn’t growing. The crowds aren’t getting any younger or any bigger, and the number of venues has dropped from 2019’s five to 2025’s three.

“We’ve been here for 27 years and we don’t expect to go anywhere,” smiled event spokesperson (and former Penticton mayor) Beth Campbell Friday afternoon.

“It seems to retain its popularity and we have a lot of repeat people. And we’re also introducing new talent and new genres of music so we can attract new people. Some of us are older and can’t make it anymore.”

Campbell also pointed to the debut of country music at the 2025 event (Jojo Mason and Penticton’s own Dane Bateman) and the “outreach” program that sees one act drop by Penticton Secondary every year on opening day.

But arguably the biggest news is the appointment of new marketing director and expert promoter Jackie Frederick. According to Campbell, Frederick is “energetic” and working hard to reach a more youthful demographic.

“Her main focus has been on online and on social media marketing,” she said. “She’s hoping to penetrate that younger market.”

Still, an aging crowd isn’t necessarily a boring crowd. And once again in 2025, the Pentastic Hot Jazz and Music Festival proved it draws more dancers – and more artful dancers—per capita than most any other likeminded event in the region.

Each floor in each venue was packed from beginning to end of virtually every performance we took in.

And that’s the cat’s pajamas, hepcat.

For more info on the Pentastic Hot Jazz and Music Festival, head here.