St Lucia Jazz goes into full gear from this weekend

St. Lucia Jazz goes into full gear from this weekend and officially closes on Sunday, May 13.

CASTRIES, St Lucia, Friday May 4, 2012 - With the official opening last Monday evening with a massive concert featuring Busy Signal, Bunji Garlin and his wife Faye Anne Lyons and local talent Teddyson John, the 2012 edition of Saint Lucia Jazz is launched and is ready to soar!

Twenty-one years after the annual event was introduced as a means of getting more visitors to the island during a traditional trough in the tourism sector, the jazz festival is nothing but a success story today.

Since 1991 when the festival first began, communities and local artistes have profited the opportunity to develop their art form, attract attention to their areas and generally add to the island’s tourism product.

Fringe activities have been born and flourished, with their perfect combo of picturesque and/or rustic settings, a smattering of local culture and the sweetest music from around Saint Lucia and a little beyond.

When Jazz rolls around every year, the island literally comes alive with the music as islanders present: Jazz on the Grill, Jazz in the South, Jazz on the Green, on the Beach, on the Bay; there is jazz at the mall and in the middle of an otherwise quiet neighbourhood, for the last three years, residents have put on Carellie Jazz.
 
One of the latest communities to get involved in the Jazz scene is Marigot Bay on Saint Lucia’s most beautiful backdrop, night or day, but especially during the evening hues.

Bob Hathaway, General Manager of the Marigot Bay Marina felt that the Bay with all that is has to offer, should catch some of the jazz fever and get in on the act and so Jazz on the Bay at Marigot Bay has been born and will hold its first ever concert on Friday, May 4, 2012.

This will feature the music of Darren Shepard, a steel pan virtuoso on his electric steel pan as well as local acts Shayne Ross, Mervyn Wilkinson and Teddyson John.

And as St. Lucia Jazz celebrates its 21st anniversary this year, officials of the St. Lucia Tourist Board have expressed keen pleasure at how nationals have embraced the event and made it their own and put their unique twist to the event by offering a multitude of various events across the length of breadth of the island.

St. Lucia Jazz goes into full gear from this weekend and officially closes on Sunday, May 13, Mother’s Day following two jam packed days of music, food, drinks, arts and craft and friends at the Pigeon Island National Landmark. Click here to receive free news bulletins via email from Caribbean360. (View sample)