Barbados follows Cayman and cancels jazz fest

(CNS): The Cayman Islands is not the only country in the region that has cancelled is annual jazz fest as a result of economic pressures. The Barbados annual festival which has been held there since 1993 will not be held in January 2011 according to a release by the organisers GMR International Tours. Although the company said it had fought to keep the festival going because of its importance to the local economy it was simply not in a position to keep it going this year. The Cayman Jazz Fest was also abandoned this year after revelations in a civil service report that it was not presenting value for money.

Although the Barbados festival was run by a private organization and not the public sector organizers said they had struggled for a long time to keep it going. The producers said they have not totally abandoned the concept of the festival and hope that in the coming months they may be able to sow the seeds of its return which is said to be the premier jazz festivals in the region.

In the civil service review of the department of tourism, the team conducting the assessment indicated that the Cayman jazz fest would be better in the hands of the private sector. Signalling the death knell for the Jazz Fest, the review team said it was concerned that the return on investment of managing the event was not clearly established or well monitored.

“The net cost of (the jazz fest) was $1million in 2009. It was not clear what contribution the Jazz Festival made to tourist visitation figures. Also, some industry stakeholders questioned the timing of the Jazz Festival and believed that the timing is not in the best interest of the economy,” the reviewers said of the festival.