St Lucia Jazz to be replaced by Summer Festival
After 25 years, the St Lucia Jazz and Arts Festival is no more.
Prime Minister Allan Chastenet, in making the announcement, said a Summer Festival will now replace the Jazz and will include music, Carnival and the Creole and Heritage Festival in November
It will start with a Jazz Week in May and will end with the Creole Festival which will be broadened to include food, arts and music.
The St Lucia Carnival, which is held in July, will be expanded to three weeks and he said a huge infusion of money will be pumped into that event.
He said the new structure will see consistent tourism arrivals over the period.
Chastenet said the $14 million spent on the two-week Jazz Festival did not make sense as it was not reaping any financial returns.
He said since BET dropped out there has been no replacement to televise the event.
The St Lucia Jazz and Arts Festival is the second such event in the Caribbean to be pulled.
The Curacao North Sea Jazz Festival was also canceled for 2017 with organisers saying they had trouble booking major acts for the time period.
