BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE St. Kitts Music Festival official lineup will be released to the general public shortly, according to officials.
A source close to the festival said a press conference would be held sometime next week to officially launch the lineup which has had a few artistes added and some struck off.
SKNVibes has learnt that one of the artistes added to the lineup is local band Hans and the Hillbillies, which is made up of spouses of students attending Ross University.
The band has been seen performing at Bary’s Bar and Grill at Bird Rock and occasionally at Ziggy’s Bar at the Frigate Bay Strip.
“We have not been getting a vast turnout from the students to attend the festival and this is an opportunity to get that,” said the source. “The band has always had a great turnout at their performances from students.”
The source explained that one of the stipulations for an artiste to perform at the festival is that they must be marketable and be able to draw a large crowd.
She also said the two main reasons why the band is a part of the festival are because it creates an opportunity to reach a new market of patrons, and its style of music lends itself as one of the objectives of the festival, which is to expose patrons to a diverse style of music.
“We seek to offer a kaleidoscope of music, and the band’s music is very different to what locals are accustomed to, which is country music,” she said.
About Mavado performing on the Thursday night, the source said that over the years they have seen a decrease in numbers attending the Soca Night.
“We have had possibly all the top Caribbean soca artistes perform in St. Kitts. As there isn’t many to choose from, we chose to put Mavado on the Thursday to sort of revitalise that night; so this will be sort of an experiment,” she said.
However, the festival is known for reshuffling artistes on various nights. For example, in the past, when the committee noticed the attendance for the Sunday night began to drop, they decided to showcase other artistes of genre of music on the once strictly Gospel night.
The artistes for the Sunday night included Barrington Levy, Ashanti and Kenny Rogers, to name a few.
She said that Mavado has something to offer the young people and, in the same way MTV Tempo uses music to preach their message of “badness out of style to the youths”, Mavado could also be used to deliver positive messages to the youths.
“We have had mixed reviews about the artiste, but at the end of the day we must find artistes who can attract both local and international visitors that will come and stay at our hotels.
“Our challenge each year is to present a lineup that caters to everyone. We can’t do the festival to just suit locals if we want it to remain international,” she said.
