A POPULAR Christchurch festival has been nominated for a national award.

The free one-day jazz festival Stompin’ on the Quomps has been nominated for Best Metropolitan Festival in the National Festival Awards.

Alongside the Liverpool Music Festival and big events in cities including Manchester and Birmingham, the quayside event is asking thousands of people who attend each year to vote for them.

“The National Festival Awards recognises the hard work, vision and creativity of festivals throughout the UK, and just to be nominated alongside cities such as Manchester and Birmingham, is an incredible honour,” said Adrian Dwyer, chairman of Stompin’ on the Quomps.

The category awards excellence for use of a town’s existing infrastructure with Stompin’ on the Quomps featuring bands on the quay’s Edwardian Bandstand for the past 20 years.

“After years of struggling to find funding for a town bandstand, a Christchurch councillor at the time said that if subscriptions had been as plentiful as advice, the bandstand would have been a success.

“Eventually, in 1937, an anonymous donation was received, but only after his death did the public discover that the donor was in fact the bandmaster himself,” said Adrian.

“I don’t know whether the bandmaster would have enjoyed jazz, but I am sure he would be absolutely delighted that on its 75th anniversary last year, Stompin’ on the Quomps had probably had the largest audience the bandstand has ever seen.

“We are now asking the thousands of people who come to Stompin’ each year to vote for us via stompin.org, or the Stompin’ Facebook page, and we wish anyone who votes best of luck in the draw for an iPad mini plus two VIP tickets to every festival that wins an award.”

Thousands of people turned out for this year’s event at Christchurch quay enjoying a variety of music, from Latin to blues.