Date: Friday 9th May 2008 Location: Pigeon Island. St. Lucia, W.I Promotions: St. Lucia Tourist Board & BET J Click on thumbnails to see the big picture/entire gallery
We're All Out of Love... Touch down in St. Lucia about 3:00 PM and the excitement is in the air. How can you beat sitting down across from Anita Baker on a flight to a Jazz Festival where she is one of the headline acts? I though to myself that would be the highlight of the trip, little did I know there were many many highlights in store. By the way, Anita says she still gets nerves before a performance, can you imagine? So
we in a taxi now, $1.5 million US (seriously, it's about $150 US) to get to town,
and the trip is more than a hour long, through the hills. Of course, we had to
make the taxi ride into an event as well. We make the taxi man find a roti spot
in some village along the way and we end up knocking back x-amount of Piton, St.
Lucia's local beer. Piton ent half bad and it cheap too!! How yuh could beat cheap
beer that doh taste cheap? By
the time we link up with the rest of the TJJ crew, it was Friday afternoon After
Work lime time. That's were the lime really kick into high gear. We
link up with a local partner, Justin, but from here on in we will refer to him
as "The Big Show" ... TBS for short! That's
were the Friendship Inn comes in, only the finest for Team TJJ! The first and
hopefully the last time I ever stay in a zero star hotel. But we go take that
one up with the union when things cool down a bit. We
reach the festival now, park a ways away and jump into one of the many shuttles
to the venue. No issues getting into the venue at all, everything was computerized,
credentials were scanned and we were on the inside. Big respect to the St. Lucia
Tourist Board for the hospitality. First big act up was Air Supply, remember
them (www.airsupplymusic.com)?
Them men have REAL tunes! They had the festival in a frenzy from start to finish
(you should see Dre singing along stage-front ... classic). The venue was a natural
amphitheater. Rolling grassy hills with a backdrop of the Caribbean sea and a
moonlit cloudless evening with that signature Caribbean breeze, with a drink in
yuh hand. Make yuh stop and give thanks yes. Thousands of people
were in attendance, we were told that it was the biggest Friday night attendance
in the history of the festival. Folks everywhere, all enjoying the
evening in different ways. Some people were in the VIP tent watching the monitors,
some watching the stage and some watching jumbotrons while on beach chairs or
a blanket. Everyone was allowed to get as close to the stage as room permitted,
all at the same price, a very nice touch indeed. Air Supply took the crowd
into an even bigger frenzy when they came down off the stage into the crown and
performed "Here I am". Graham Russell (The Song) with his acoustic
guitar and lead singer (The Singer), Russell Hitchcock - real styles! The sound system was no joke either, whoever that sound company was had those line arrays sounding perfect, no matter where in the park you were. Of course, Air Supply were called back on the stage when they tried to end their set at around 11:30pm and obliged, performing another two songs before they made room for Michael Bolton, who did his thing for the massive audience who stayed to the very end. Jazz off to an excellent start, the night sill young we off to The Pulse nightclub with TBS for more action. Who decide we should sleep with the door open? Yuh ever wake up Saturday morning after a night of heavy liming and see the Inn keeper in yuh room trying to fix the A/C??!! Of course, we have more stories for days so standby for the Saturday action!! Wados aka The Appraiser for the TJJ Fam. ==================================== |
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