Barbados Jazz Festival
Bridgetown, the bustling capital of Barbados, is known not only for its wonderfully relaxing Carlisle Bay Beach and its picturesque synagogues, churches and cathedrals, but also for being home to the world renowned Barbados Jazz Festival.
Every January, Bridgetown - where buildings resemble nothing so much as elaborately frosted layer cakes - plays host to what has come to be regarded as the country's premier musical event: the Barbados Jazz Festival. For one whole week, the city comes alive to the tropical sounds of Caribbean-flavored jazz, and both festival guests and festival performers will have travelled to the Bajan capital from all corners of the globe to play and party until the wee hours of the morning.
From traditional and established jazz instrumentalists to rising reggae and R&B singers, the festival showcases every class of performer and promotes not only jazz but also all types of Caribbean music. Festival patrons can, in fact, expect a great deal of diversity - not only with the acts on display but also with the venues at which the acts will be performed - and popular party places that played prominent roles in previous festivals include the gracious Sunbury Plantation House, which dates back to 1660 and which charms visitors with its beautiful gardens and quaint collection of antique horse-drawn carriages. Further popular festival venues include the Farley Hill National Park, which hosts a one-day open air concert that is, with its backdrop of the ruined Farley Mansion, arguably the highlight of the festival, as well as the immense Sir Garfield Sobers gymnasium.
While the larger concert venues may feature A-list stars like Dionne Warwick and Alicia Keyes, the neighboring hotels aren't left out and also manage to get a slice of the action. For the duration of the festival, these particular hotels will feature once-off "jazz nights" where local, lively but, perhaps, little known, jazz musicians will get the chance to strut their stuff for an international audience. Some of these hotels also offer Jazz Festival package deals, and the canny tourist would thus be able to combine a stay at one of Bridgetown's swankier hotels with a couple of first-class concerts.
The Barbados Jazz Festival has been teasing and tantalizing tourists with brilliant Bajan blues notes, intriguing improvisations and passionately syncopated polyrhythms for 17 years, and there is no reason why it shouldn't continue doing to for at least another 17 more.
