The organizer of Bethany Beach’s annual jazz funeral died earlier this year, but city officials say the show will go on.
The jazz funeral has been a fixture in Bethany Beach for four decades, marking the end of the summer season and giving residents a chance to bid the high season farewell.
But the death of Paul Jankovic earlier this year left the tradition’s future in doubt.
At a town council meeting last week, however, Town Manager Cliff Graviet said that the jazz funeral will be taken over by the city, with Bethany Beach’s Events Director, Julie Malewski, taking over the organization. But he hopes she won’t be doing it alone.
“We're looking for anybody that has any ideas, participated in the past, to come to us with their ideas, anything they would like to see added to the parade,” he said. “We're trying to maintain what it was and maybe grow it in a positive way if we can.”
Graviet noted that while the jazz funeral is a traditional goodbye to summer, it won’t mark an end to activities in the town.
“We don't want to say that our season is really done,” he said. “In a way, this season is done, but as many of us know, after the season is done in the summer, the fun can really begin in the quiet resort, and our beaches and our streets are maybe even far more enjoyable than they are in the dead of summer.”
Details on the jazz funeral, which traditionally happens on Labor Day, will be released later this summer.
Delaware Public Media's arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
