The Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival appears poised for a return to fiscal harmony, thanks to the University of Idaho.
The festival had accumulated more than $450,000 in debt since its inception in 1985, and a $700,000 debt had been accrued by its umbrella organization, the Lionel Hampton Center.
But the university absorbed that debt last year, giving festival organizers a clean slate for this year's budget.
Along with the festival, which concluded its annual run last weekend, the Hampton Center has been overseeing the development of a jazz archives collection, expanded jazz music degrees and the proposed $40 million Lionel Hampton Center building in Moscow, Idaho.