Shopping in Croydon is not an experience many people look forward to. All they want to do is get in, get what they want and get out, particularly on a busy Saturday.

But last month hectic shoppers found themselves in a more mellow mood, wandering between shops, soothed by the array of live music on offer thanks to the Croydon Jazz Festival.

Now in its third year the festival lasted 10 days and featured live street jazz, bands in the Whitgift Centre and concerts in pubs, the Fairfield Halls and the Croydon Clocktower.

Organiser Dave Markee, whose own band performed in the Ashcroft Theatre during the festival, was delighted with how the event turned out.

He said: "It was absolutely fabulous, didn't we do well? We have set the tempo now for the next few years.

"All we need to do is do more of what we have already done. I don't think I missed anything out this year. It really was fabulous."

Markee was also pleased with how the headline acts, Stan Tracey at Braithwaite Hall and Albert Lee at the Aerodrome Hotel, went down.

He said: "The main acts were really well attended. Albert on the Saturday night was a lively crowd, it looked like a mini Wembley. My guys did a very good job of turning that booking hall into a real showpiece."

Markee is already looking towards next year's festival and is cracking on with preparations for it.

"We are going to start work on next year's now, this year we only started organising it after Christmas," he explained, adding: "I am hoping to do much more at the Ashcroft Theatre next year if we can get the funding and the artists together.

"I'm already looking towards some international people from Europe to come along and that would be great.

"I think it's a good shape at 10 days. What we did with the street jazz and the concerts and the pubs I think made it a really nice shape."