AN ARCHIVE documenting the colourful history of Ballydehob Jazz Festival will go on display in the village during and after this year’s event.

In its 20th year, festival organisers have teamed up with Ballydehob Arts Museum to display items including photos, posters, programmes and films from over the years.

An open call has already gone out across the community to search attics, sheds and other storage spaces for memorabilia from the festival, entirely run by volunteers. Organiser Caroline O’Donnell said: ‘The baton has been passed from one group of people to another and we wanted to bring the different faces and memories together.

‘There will be a nostalgic element to it because people from the area will probably spot themselves in the exhibition. But it’s also for visitors to see how the festival was built and to find out about the many hands that kept the show on the road.’

The archive team put a special focus on the early days of the festival between 2007 and 2009 when John Fagan and his friends were the organisers, and on the formative years between 2010 and 2013.

Collected items, such as the prototypes for the giant puppet family seen parading the streets, will go on display at Ballydehob Arts Museum in Bank House on Main Street.

Visitors can see the exhibition during this year’s festival which runs from April 30th until May 4th, and it will stay up until the end of May.

Bank House will also function as the first aid, lost and found and central info desk during one of West Cork’s biggest celebrations of music and art.

Alongside the ticketed venues In Ballydehob, the lively event for all ages will also bring more than 40 free live performances into pubs, cafés and outdoor spaces throughout the village.

Festivalgoers can expect circus performances, theatre and dance spilling out into the streets. Organisers added that the best way to support the festival is by buying a ticket to one of the gig or becoming a volunteer.