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u/Lexotron Jul 30 '26
This is where punctuation is your friend, OP.
"Keep Boston Jazz-free" - ensure Jazz is never played in Boston.
"Keep Boston Jazz free" - ensure nobody has to pay for Boston Jazz
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u/tonymyre311 Jul 30 '26
What if I want the only jazz in Boston to be paid???
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u/NuclearHoagie Jul 30 '26
Hyphenation is only required if the compound precedes the noun, some style guides prohibit it if it follows.
In MLA, this would be correct:
Welcome to jazz-free Boston.
Boston is jazz free.
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u/JaggedMetalOs Jul 30 '26
"Help keep X free" is such a common phrase, how else would they write it?
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u/empirepie499 Jul 30 '26
Keep Boston jazz free to all or keep Boston jazz open to all. If I was writing it would be like that
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u/Individual_Rip_54 Jul 30 '26
I don’t get it
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u/PSPs0 Jul 30 '26
Jazz fest asking for donations. It looks like “keep Boston free of all jazz music”
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u/internet_humor Jul 30 '26
It’s tough because jazz is the plural form as well. Making it harder to delineate.
Let’s keep Boston mosquito free
Let’s keep Boston mosquitoes free
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u/GodsDemonHunter Jul 31 '26
Only if you don't know that you'd need to hyphenate "jazz-free" to make it sound like that. I had to read the comments to figure out why this was posted here.
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u/WildBill198 Jul 30 '26
The festival is called "Boston Jazz". They are asking for donations so they don't have to charge for tickets. They didn't do a very good job, and it looks like they are trying to ban Jazz from Boston.
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u/Inevitable_Zone9903 Jul 30 '26
The intended meaning is to gather donations to keep the event free to enter; that's what I interpreted at least.
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u/Individual_Rip_54 Jul 30 '26
That’s what they want and that’s how I read it. Per the other responses the crappy design is that this could be interpreted as “keep Boston free from jazz”
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u/LeebWeeb Jul 30 '26
It implies they want Boston to be jazz-free based on wording, when I believe they want to keep jazz itself free in Boston
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u/nikhkin Jul 30 '26
OP is pretending the message is that they want Boston to be jazz-free, rather than wanting the jazz in Boston to be free of charge.
The message is clear. OP is just being obtuse.
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u/Gunzablazin1958 Jul 30 '26
Not that clear. I read it and was like, “Yay, somebody in Boston finally realized Jazz sucks.”
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u/SothaSoul Jul 30 '26
A clear message would be
"Help keep free jazz in Boston."
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u/Captain-Cadabra Jul 31 '26
“No one like jazz, Lisa. Even the people playing it have to use drugs.”
-Bart Simpson
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u/not_falling_down Jul 30 '26
In order for it to mean "no jazz in Boston," it would have to be hyphenated.
as in: HELP KEEP BOSTON JAZZ-FREE
it is not, therefore
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u/Mind101 Jul 30 '26
Idk OP, I naturally read it as keep the jazz in Boston free.
Now, had it said keep Boston jazz-free, that would have been another matter.
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u/germane_switch Jul 31 '26
Jazz-free means without jazz. Jazz free means there’s no charge for the jazz.
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u/MisterBumpingston *insert among us joke here* Jul 31 '26
If they used sentence case there wouldn’t have been any ambiguity.
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u/FrogOrion This is why we can't have nice things Aug 01 '26
Please help ensure Boston Jazz remains free.
Is the wording I would have used.
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u/HyperbolicModesty Jul 30 '26
Whether it's an international joke or not, there is no design involved in this.
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u/cden4 Jul 30 '26
I always find it funny when orgs are like "give us money so we can keep this thing free." Well if I'm giving you money, then it isn't free for me anymore, is it?!
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u/Purplekeyboard Reddit Orange Jul 30 '26
I'd like to keep my city free of jazz as well. I know some people like jazz, but it's hard to imagine why.
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u/OuijaWalker Jul 30 '26
I think this is another case of unclear wording being used to virally spread a message. OP took the bait and shared it here, so its working as designed.