A Festival for All That Jazz

There is another festival this weekend. It’s the Belize International Jazz Festival. For the third year, the festival has been a medium to increase appreciation and love for jazz music. It provides a venue for musicians to get up to speed on jazz techniques as well as to network with other professionals from the region and elsewhere.  And even though it’s all about jazz, performances from the Larubeya Band, the Garifuna Collective and others will add energy to the events. Organizer Karen Vernon told News Five today what people can expect over the next nine days.

Karen Vernon

Karen Vernon, Organizer, Belize International Jazz Festival

“Belizean public can expect very exciting, soulful jazz fusion music over the next nine days. Over the next nine days, we have maybe a dozen or so different events happening. It starts tomorrow, Saturday, at the Mexican Institute with a welcome show and jam session and that will feature Cuba and Mexico. We then move on to Radisson on Sunday for brunch and then on Sunday evening, we have the grand opening concert at the Memorial Park which is a free concert that features a huge lineup of Belizean and international artists.”

Reporter

“Has the festival changed or grown over the years?”

Karen Vernon

“It certainly has in terms of participating musicians as well as audiences coming out to see the shows. This year we are going back to Cayo because last year the reception in Cayo was very exciting; people came out, we were very happy with it. So we’ll be having three different shows in Cayo. Next week Friday at Ka’ana. Saturday there is an all female lineup at the San Ignacio Hotel which is a dinner/concert/dance. And on Sunday we close off the festival in Cayo at the Cayo Welcome Center with also a huge lineup of artists featuring the marimba, the steel pan, the world cultural band…a huge lineup of artists.”

So beginning Saturday, jazz aficionados will have opportunities to enjoy this special genre of music.