HOTELS ARE FULL and LIAT is offering extra flights so patrons can attend this weekend's climax of the 17th St Lucia Jazz Festival.

Senator Allen Chastanet, St Lucia's minister of tourism and civil aviation, reported Wednesday that hotels were "fully booked" and that regional airline LIAT was beefing up flights for the festival featuring headliners Michael Bolton, Air Supply, Angie Stone, Anita Baker, Dianne Reeves, Dionne Warwick, Jonathan Butler, Najee and Wyclef Jean.

The festival, one of the Caribbean's premier musical attractions, is produced by BET Event Productions and promoted on cable networks BET and BET J.

Chastanet, who founded the festival along with BET executive vice-president Paxton Baker in the early 1990s, said Straight-Ahead Jazz last night, Nostalgia tonight and Smooth Jazz tomorrow and Sunday were the highlights for this weekend's showdown on scenic Pigeon Island in the country's north.

"The feedback has been phenomenal [and] hotels are full. In fact, LIAT is putting on additional flights intraregionally to be able to meet the demand that we are seeing," said Chastanet.

"We are honoured to continue playing a key role in promoting St Lucia and St Lucia Jazz over the years," said Cybelle Brown, vice-president of sales and business development with BET Digital Networks.

"We are extremely proud of this event and will continue to maximise our media resources to achieve increased business to the island. This year's line-up has generated tremendous support from our digital platform, BET.com."

Other festival acts include the Juilliard Quintet featuring saxophonist Ron Blake and trumpeter Eddie Henderson, along with saxophonist Jacques Schwartz-Bart, keyboardist Alex Bugnon, guitarist Nick Colionne, neo-soul singer Ledisi and several top local and Caribbean performers.

The ten-day jazz festival focuses on straight-ahead jazz, acoustic, new age, jazz/soul, fusion, R&B and hip hop, and is held at various locations islandwide.(PR/RJ)