SUMMER in Jersey now means festival time. As this week serves vividly to demonstrate, the days when the Battle of Flowers had an effective Island monopoly on the celebratory mass gathering are firmly in the past. Instead, the summer months are now punctuated by an impressive series of big events designed not only to attract more visitors, but also to enliven the proceedings for one and all.

From teen idol Will Young, the star of Channel 103FM’s Big Gig in the Park at the weekend, to old stager Paul Weller, who will bring new cross-generation appeal to the thoroughly well established Jersey Live in September, these festivals now attract a wide variety of big-name modern talent. Jersey has always done well in that respect in the realm of classical music, but this new dimension makes a very welcome and even more popular addition to the cultural life of the Island.

Just a week after the Gig in the Park will come the Grassroots Festival at Val de la Mare, another home-grown music event with international appeal and one skilfully tailored to complement Jersey’s special interests in surfing and the environment. In similarly creative vein, the vision and talent of young Islanders have seen October’s Branchage Film Festival firmly established as an innovative addition to the national independent cinema scene.

These cultural events, and others like the ever more successful JEP West Show, the International Air Display and the good old Battle itself, between them give pleasure to tens of thousands of people. A good way to estimate their value to the community is briefly to imagine Jersey without them – an exercise which demonstrates that we all have a debt of gratitude to those who work so hard to bring them about. That includes commercial sponsors, supporters in States departments and volunteer helpers as well as those whose entrepreneurial flair has set this ball happily rolling and helped to encourage the growth of creative industries to aid much-needed economic diversification.

On that theme, it is worth noting that the decline of Jersey’s tourism industry has been significant not only economically, but also culturally. When our main source of income involved ensuring that visitors had a good time, there was an inevitable knock-on effect for the rest of us. An air of fun and relaxation was generated to the benefit of all, something not even its best friend would claim for the finance industry which superseded tourism.

The festivals boom restores at least some of that feel-good factor and, quite apart from its benefits to the economy, should be warmly encouraged for its important contribution to our overall quality of life.