The North Coast Jazz and Heritage Festival will return next month after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. It will take place from May 27-29 and patrons can look forward to not only the jazz and movie night but also a J’Ouvert. The event will also honour calypsonian Robert “Lord Nelson” Nelson.
“The festival begins with its Friday night event Feature Film Friday, followed by its strong Saturday magic and for the first time introduces Blue Sunday starting at 2 am on May 29 featuring top DJs matched only by the magic of HADCO’s Phase II,” a media release said.
“Blue Sunday is going to be J’Ouvert in May complete with paint and powder matched with not only the music of artiste born here and played here, but we are going to bring the powder mystery and magic of the pan with the Phase and others to the festival grounds.”
[caption id="attachment_948749" align="alignnone" width="829"] Lord Nelson (Robert Alphonso Nelson) will be honoured at the North Coast Jazz in May. -[/caption]
“Exhilarating,” was the descriptor North Coast Jazz and Heritage Festival organiser Louis Lee Sing used for the event’s return.
Lee Sing, Margaret Gittens, John Gill and Darren Lee Sing are the organisers of the festival.
Lee Sing said the event is part of the group’s wider business plan for the Blanchisseuse community which includes not only accommodation to drive tourism (domestic and international) but also the development of restaurants and other businesses.
“The jazz is part of a bigger picture: the creation of the bed and breakfast programme. And our target is perhaps to arrive at 200 rooms. And from there we move to a next phase when we would introduce a range of other goods and service, entertainment and so on,” he said.
The former Port of Spain mayor said between the last jazz and now, the development of the bed and breakfast programme continued. He said a number of new properties had been added to the community’s list.
“For us, at the North Coast Jazz Festival Committee, the team is just excited and we are doing our very best. We are going all out to produce an event that is going to be just as memorable as the three previous events,” he said.
[caption id="attachment_948750" align="alignnone" width="680"] Dean Williams -[/caption]
Digital innovations will also now be a feature of the event as the pandemic hastened the use of digital technologies in day-to-day living.
Lee Sing that the community will be a Wi-Fi hotspot and “not only will admissions be wristbands that carries chips that allows you to enter the event based on the new science,” but the organisers also plan to use the bands as a point of sale for its goods and services.
“If you want to buy meals and what have you, that will be available via the wristbands and so it is a whole new approach to it. The whole question of concierge service to reduce the traffic of people up and down and so on. All of these are being addressed in an organised way,” he said.
Lee Sing said he was on record as having said that the covid19 virus was not going to go a
