Search for Dixieland jazz on the Web, and you'll find the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee listed as the nation's top Dixieland jazz festival in Wikipedia.

The entry is now dated, though, since organizers of this annual Memorial Day weekend rite have jettisoned not only the word "jubilee" but also the word "jazz" from the festival's name.

The Sacramento Jazz Festival and Jubilee will now be known as the Sacramento Music Festival, organizers announced late last week.

The new name has inspired everything from applause to ire to concern that the generic name will be difficult to market. But should Wikipedia be updated with news that the Sacramento festival is no longer committed to Dixieland jazz?

Dixieland and traditional jazz will remain central to the festival, making up half of the acts that will perform, said Vivian Abraham, executive director of the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society, which puts on the festival.

But, Abraham said, the words "Dixieland" and "jazz" are deadly when you're trying to attract young audiences.

Attendance at arts events nationwide eroded at a double-digit percentage rate between 1982 and 2008, according to a recent survey by the National Endowment for the Arts, and jazz has shown some of the biggest declines.

"We started seeing attendance wane 10 years ago," Abraham said, "and that's when we started to look for a younger crowd to keep us going."

The festival has lost nearly 3 percent of its audience each year since 2001, she said. It drew nearly 65,000 paid patrons this year and ended in the black with revenue of $1.3 million. At its peak, in the 1980s, the festival drew roughly 85,000.

In the 1990s, as attendance declined, festival organizers moved to expand the number of genres represented. The Zydeco Flames, the first non-jazz group invited to perform, blew away all previous records for CD sales in 1990. After that, country, Latin and zydeco were added to the mix.

Still, Abraham said, she and others are not throwing out the baby with the bath water. Next year's festival is devoting all of its performances and spaces at its Sheraton venue as a "Jubilee Heritage Area."

"That will satisfy our base." she said. "It's safe to say that the festival will not be adding more jazz music, but we will not lose what we have been presenting."

The new name has inspired both anger and praise from jazz stalwarts. As for marketing experts, they see a name change as necessary but express concern about the generic nature of "Sacramento Music Festival."

"I was pleased when the Jubilee became the 'Jazz Festival' years back and attempted to broaden their musical offerings with an esoteric mix of jazz and non-jazz," said Jerry Vorpahl, one of the festival's founders. "But they diluted their base and started losing fans."

Others say the festival doesn't reflect what is hot locally or nationally.

"Taking the word 'jazz' out of the name has everything to do with the people there being out of touch," said Harley White Jr., bandleader of the Sacramento-based jazz orchestra that bears his name. "Can you imagine the Montreux Jazz Festival or the New Orleans Jazz (& Heritage) Festival taking the word 'jazz' out of their names? It really makes you wonder what crack they're smoking."

Jazz vocalist Vivian Lee sees it differently: "It's not a focus away from jazz. It's an opening-up to different forms of jazz and jazz music."

The audience that made Dixieland famous is just not there, she said.

"A lot of the people who listened to Dixieland … a lot of those people have died."

In the marketing field, the feeling is that the name change is the right move at the right time, but the name itself will be tough to brand.

"This is a decision based on the image of a jazz festival connoting a festival for old people," said Bob Beyn, president of the marketing firm Seraphein Beyn.

The festival has been working with the firm for the last two years, he said, and Beyn advocated removing "jazz" and "jubilee."

"If this festival is to move forward and be viable to a new generation of concertgoers, then it can't be pigeonholed into a jazz festival," said Beyn.

But the new name has its shortcomings, he said.

"It's a fairly generic term," he said. "It has no bad connotations. It has no connotations at all."

California State University, Sacramento, marketing professor Dennis Tootelian also sees branding challenges.

"They will need to do more marketing," Tootelian said. "With the new name, you have lost the specificity."

He saw the name change as a smart move, however.

"Everything, at some point, runs its course and becomes stale," said Tootelian, about the traditional jazz focus and the old name. "From a marketing standpoint it makes sense to broaden the focus out. … The marketplace wants a different kind of music."

The bottom line: You'll still find Dixieland and traditional jazz music at the annual festival, but you won't find the words in the name.

"Not changing the name?" Tootelian said. "That would be a death blow to this festival."

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