$12M for Tobago Jazz Experience 2017

In a phone interview with Newsday on the official announcement of the changes being made to the 25 year old St Lucia Jazz and Arts festival, Arnold said, that each festival has its own model.

He said the festival organisers would have examined their own offering as festival tourism organisers and decided what was best for them.

Arnold said the festival moved from the jazz model to a bigger summer festival.

For 2017 Tobago Jazz Experience, Arnold noted, that the event was working with a smaller budget of $12 million.

Arnold noted that the festival the fringe festivals normally sponsored by the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) would now be sponsored by other stakeholders of the festival.

Arnold said the event’s organisers were in the process of completing final contracts for next year. He said, when asked of the lineup for the event, that it would be a blend of international headliners and Caribbean stars.

Representatives for the St Lucia Jazz Festival 2017 when contacted said the event would now become a longer festival incorporating different genres of which jazz would still be a component.

The St Lucian Tourism Minister, Dominic Feedee was quoted as saying that the festival as it was costing the board too much in terms of resources.