The festival has also changed its name to Halls Gap Jazz & Blues Festival and will feature a wider variety of music.

There will be the popular mix of jazz styles - classic trad, swing, American song book, groove, funk and fusion plus a small extra flavour of blues.

Now in its 30^th year, the festival will run from Friday to Sunday at the Halls Gap Hall, Hub, Pinnacle, Mountain Grand, Comfort Inn and Kookaburra Hotel.

Festival convener Don Calvert said the new date would also avoid weekends with greater bushfire danger ratings, which carried a risk of cancellation on safety grounds.

“We’ve moved it to the nicer springtime with wildflowers and everything,” he said.

“The whole move has been highly successful and there has been overwhelming support for it.”

Mr Calvert said the band program changes would also add to the festival.

“We have added blues this year to add a wider appeal and one of the blues bands is a winner of the 2016 blues band of the year from the Melbourne blues appreciation society,” he said.

“They’re called Dreamboogie. They’ve got quite a following.”

Popular jazz band Shirazz will also return.  

Tickets, supplied in the form of badges, can be purchased from $25 for day sessions or $70 for the whole three day weekend.

For more information, visit www.hallsgapjazzblues.com of phone 0409 252 046.