Tobago Jazz Festival

[Nigel Stoddart]

We have just come back from a week in Tobago and I am happy to say we went to the final night of the Jazz Festival.

It was a great night and a great experience to see how much the T&T's enjoy their music. For us although Elton John & Al Greene were good the stars of the show were Earth Windind and Fire, they were superb, what a voice the lead singer has.

We left when the fireworks started after Elton's gig as we thought it was the end and wanted to get away quick. However there was another local act on after, who apparently the crowd went mad for!

I am so glad we went to the Sunday event as the Saturday event almost turned into a riot. Diana Ross was cut to just four songs after the earler acts over raN. I would not have been happy forking out that amount and then see the main act cut.

My experience though was much better, a really well run event for such a small island and a great way to spend an evening on your holiday.

[David Watkins]

Yeh.Ok,but Pan and African drum night in d'Boathouse beats all.
David

[Kathy Ross]

I went to the jazz festival on Friday & Sat. night. They should have started late afternoon and not evening to get in all the local entertainment. The locals were all good but it went far too late. Friday nite they had 3 hours of local and between each set it was at least a 1/2 an hour before the next one started. It was organized much better than Sat. night though. Sat. night they let so many cars in past the shuttle stop off that for an hour following the concert nothing moved. The buses could not get in because the cars had the road blocked. It was suppose to begin at 5 but was an hour late. There was 4 HOURS of local music, counting the time between sets. Dianna didn't come out until 1 am and only sang for 35 min. Mary J was like an hour. I was as pissed as Diana was, it was alot of money to listen to locals. Alot of people left after Dianna and did not stay for Mary j. They rented chairs and on sat. night they ran out, did not have enough, so some people stood from 5 pm until 2:30 when it was over, and then had to walk out to the shuttle drop off, 2 or 3 miles. It was after 3 am before we got home. I have a disability and found it very hard to walk out. Because of that, I could not go Sunday night, we went to Turtle Beach and sat on the beach and listened to Elton, even thought we had tickets. I understand it went much better on Sunday and probably Elton layed the law down about the time as they had some locals on after him. Good for him if he did! I was told by some they were going to try and get Diana back for next year... can't imagine. It was really great to be so close to the singers and not in some huge stadium, nice to be outdoors especially in Tobago... but they need to make some changes.