Bix 7 Road Race and Memorial Jazz Festival

Bix 7 Road Race

The starting line at the 2008 Bix 7 race
Date and location Late July
Davenport, Iowa
Race type road race
Distance 7 miles
Established 1975
Official site http://www.bix7.com

The Bix 7 Road Race and Memorial Jazz Festival is a road race and music festival held annually in Davenport, Iowa. The race and festival commemorate Davenport native and jazz musician Bix Beiderbecke.

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Race

The Bix 7 road race is a 7 miles (11 km) long race held in late July in Davenport, Iowa, known for its hills and huge crowds on the out-and-back course.[1] The race was founded in 1975 by John Hudetz, then a resident of Bettendorf, Iowa who wanted to bring some of the excitement he felt when he ran his first Boston Marathon to the Quad-Cities.[2] The first race was run by eighty-four runners.[2] Today the race is often run by 12,000 to 18,000 runners.[3][4]

In the mid-1970s it assumed the name Bix 7 to capitalize on the popularity of the 3 day Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Fest, held on the same weekend, and slowly began to grow. The draw of Bill Rodgers, then the worlds greatest marathoner, to the field in 1980 fueled interest and a huge growth in entries. Under the leadership of Race Director Ed Froehlich (statue dedicated in 2009), and the Quad-City Times newspaper putting its name on the race and promoting it heavily using its media reach and the addition of several corporate sponsorships, it has become one of the nation's classic road races. It is the largest non-marathon race in the Midwest,[5] and draws runners from all over the country and the world. The race field is a who's who of world class runners and a celebration of past champions like Rodgers and 1984 Olympic Marathon Champion Joan Benoit Samuelson, both of whom compete yearly.[6]

Jazz Festival

Bix Jazz Memorial Festival
Location(s) Davenport, Iowa
Years active 1971-present
Founded by Bill Donohue
Date(s) Last Full Weekend in July
Genre Jazz
Website http://www.bixsociety.org/

The Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival is a three-day music festival with many traditional jazz bands. It is held in tribute to jazz cornetist, pianist, composer, and Davenport native Bix Beiderbecke. In addition to the Bix Fest, the Wells Fargo Street Fest is held on the same dates as the Bix Festival and features live rock music, food, and vendors with no connection to Bix Beiderbecke. It began many years after the Bix Festival began and is sponsored by Wells Fargo bank. It has no affiliation with or connection to the Bix Beiderbecke Jazz Festival. The Bix Fest is a four day festival held simultaneously in four different venues in Davenport, Iowa. The main venue is the bandshell in LeClaire Park on the Mississippi River. It is held on Thursday through Sunday, during a week in late July.

The festival was started in 1971 when Bill Donahoe's Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Band of New Jersey traveled to Davenport, Iowa to play music at Bix's grave at the 40th anniversary of his death.[7] The Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Society was founded in 1972, to help keep alive the memory and musical accomplishments of Beiderbecke alive.[7]

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