North Coast Jazz returns in May

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.”

“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.

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 away and people had to “learn to dance with it.” He added that it was with this in mind that the North Coast Committee set about planning the event.

Technology now has to play a major part in event organisation going forward and even without the pandemic it would have done so, he added.

The team has also always aimed to do better than it had done before and the question is always asked how can it do better, and that meant embracing technology, Lee Sing said.

“Some of us had the benefit of travelling overseas and attending major events and concerts. And we have looked with tremendous powers of enquiry about what to do and how to do it better…”

He said where the team saw good policies and procedures, it adapted it to suit the environment and the needs of its product.

Lee Sing said once the committee gets the required rooms in its wider Blanchisseuse programme it intends to provide a different kind of range of services.

He said the Blanchisseuse programme will give birth to restaurants, entertainment and the team is working toward developing a dance and drama company.

“You might well get a Hamilton coming out of Blanchisseuse. The whole question of organising the day trips to the inaccessible beaches and all of that is being looked after in an organised way.”

Lee Sing said the team wrote to the Government seeking help on the matter but did not get a reply. He said that gave rise to the North Coast Credit Union and this will be used to fund its projects.

“It will take us longer but we will get there. And Blanchisseuse will one day be an independent place where we, one day, won’t have to beg for a dollar and a dime from anyone,” he said.

Past North Coast Jazz events had approximately 1,500 patrons, this year however the team anticipates about 1,000 people this year.

Another team member Margaret Gittens said it was an exciting time to be back. She said the event was good for the country and the industry as it uses only local talent and is an economic driver within the community.

She added that even though there was the pandemic, the team had been planning for the event’s return for the past two years.

The event will feature a free movie night on May 27, and Gittens said there is usually sponsored eats and drinks for those attending the movie night, She added that almost all accommodation in the area is already booked.

All of the concessionaires at the event are from the community, she said.

“For the first time we are attempting a J’Ouvert starting hopefully around 2 am.”

The jazz event on May 28 is supposed to finish at about 10.30 pm – 11 pm and people usually linger around, she said. The J’Ouvert is going to be around the community’s savannah with HADCO Phase II Pan Groove and DJs.

More buses will be available for the park and ride service from the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain, she said. Patrons can look forward to a grand opening act at the event as well, but further details were still being worked out.

Calls for tickets have already started, she added.