If you haven't booked your hotel room for the Tobago Jazz Experience, it may be too late.Yesterday a representative of the Tobago Hotels Association told the T&T Guardian almost all of the island's hotels and guest houses were full.Calls to several guest houses and hotels confirmed that as some hotels which typically charged $600 a night had sold rooms at $1,200 and were still sold out.Caribbean Airlines flights to the island were completely sold out for April 25, the night headlining act John Legend will perform.
The ferry service to Tobago is also booked and there is limited room on the water taxi, which will be transporting passengers between the islands during the festival weekend.Rumours that tickets for John Legend's performance were sold out, however, were inaccurate.Though VIP tickets were no longer available, general admission tickets for the event were still being sold. All other events also still had tickets available.
An official of the Division of Tourism said preparations for the Tobago Jazz Experience were going well.This is despite the late advertisement for suppliers for the event, published on Saturday, he added.It called for proposals from suppliers of tents, sound systems, chairs, tables, signs and other related services.The official added: "We are overwhelmed with suppliers. Every year we have a number of people who submit proposals to supply services to us.
"What we do is try to drive tourism and the local economy so we try to use as many Tobago suppliers as possible but we are still encouraging suppliers to send us proposals."We wanted a wider variety of submissions because we still need to know that we are getting the best product at the best price."He said most of the suppliers for the main shows during the festival had already been confirmed and the advertisement would have been targeting suppliers for the other events.
The main shows, which take place between April 25 and 27, will feature award-winning R&B artiste John Legend, Jamaican singers Tessanne Chin and Tarrus Riley, R&B artistes Keyshia Cole and Brandy and R&B group Earth, Wind and Fire.