Music Festival offers opportunity to more locals

(ZIZ News) — The 19th edition of the St. Kitts Music Festival got underway on Thursday night with an explosion of soca music.

In addressing a question posed on the infusion of a wider range of entertainment into the festival, Minister of Tourism, Hon. Lindsay Grant said this year, more local artists have been given the opportunity to perform at the festival.

“The idea was to ensure that we give our local talent a bit more opportunity and a bit more air play for the music festival,” the Minister stated, adding that, “I think this year, we have gotten more local talent during the course of the music festival than normal and I think it augurs well, not only for this particular festival, but it augurs well for the persons who have talent, who can see that persons are now getting more opportunity to be on stage and this is the real thing because you are performing with international artists of a high caliber and they must be able to learn something from that and move forward.”

Minister Grant said it is his objective to give young people the opportunity to showcase the talents that can be found in St. Kitts and Nevis.

He said, “I think we have a lot of talent in St. Kitts and Nevis and we need to showcase the talent a bit more and that’s why I’m trying to, at least, give youngsters or persons with talent a greater opportunity to showcase their talent. The entertainment industry is huge worldwide and I hope going forward into the 20th anniversary of the music festival, we can create some new talent in St. Kitts and Nevis. Talent that can transcend beyond the boundaries of St. Kitts and Nevis and go international in a big way… if we can find that niche, if we can find that opportunity, I think we would be doing excellently.”