…Artistes already arriving
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - THE organisers of this year’s St. Kitts Music Festival have capped the number of patrons allowed into the venue on any given night to just over 6,000, due to a number of changes made to this year’s setup.
That was confirmed to SKNVibes by Committee Chairman Damien Hobson yesterday (Jun. 20) as he gave an update on preparations for the return of the mega event.
“So, we had a walk through with the Fire Chief on Thursday and we have capped the capacity at 6,500 general admission persons. So the venue is slightly smaller than 2019, and that was really a design change because the new sound people had some ideas of how they wanted to project the sound,” disclosed Hobson.
But despite the reduction, the party must go on and the return of the Festival is creating a buzz in St. Kitts and Nevis as well as in the wider Caribbean.
The organisers were seen yesterday putting the final touches on the stage and the VIP tents.
“I will say that we are 75 percent ready. Today we should wrap up most of what is left to be done. The stage is already up, lights, LED and sounds. We have actually started our sound checks with our local bands. All of the VIP tents are up…and by the end of today we should be 95 percent ready,” the Chairman announced.
Hobson disclosed that all of the artistes are expected to be in the Federation by Thursday (Jun. 23) for sound checks, whilst Bunji Garlin and Fay Ann Lyons are already in the country.
“Most of the artistes will be arriving on Wednesday afternoon. We have a charter coming out of Miami and we have a charter coming out of Trinidad. So most of, or 80 percent of, the artistes will be arriving here by Wednesday,” confirmed Hobson.
Meanwhile, when it comes to security and transportation, the Committee indicated that several park and ride options would be available to those attending the event.
“Parking is always going to be an issue at major events, and we have no dedicated parking areas. We are going to be using Port Zante and the Newtown Playfield - the one between the school and Sol - as areas for persons to park. We will be providing 15-minute shuttles from both locations start at 6:30 p.m.,” added Hobson.
This is the first staging of the Music Festival since the pandemic began and many are expecting a bumper crowd of persons from both St. Kitts and Nevis and also across the region.
The 2022 St. Kitts Music Festival will run from June 23-25 at the Kim Collins Athletics Stadium.
