Performing guitar, as you know is my passion, but can you imagine getting the opportunity to pursue my passion in paradise? That sums up my Bequia Music Festival 2018 experience.
I was greeted with such warmth at the new Argyle International Airport, St. Vincent. My driver, Quency Lewis of Foreign Tours Taxi Service treated me like a dignitary, a novel experience for me. It was clear that I was a special guest and this shone through every person who had to deal with me for my entire time.
A 1hr ferry took me to Bequia from St.
Vincent, where a team headed by Sabrina Mitchell, Chairman of the Bequia
Tourism Board greeted me with a welcome package, including little essentials
for the festival, a meal schedule, offering a variety of restaurants, Mount Gay
Rum (the sponsor), maps and souvenirs. My hotel room was ready - a comfortable
room at the Frangipani, with a deck overlooking the gardens and a bit of ocean.
It was peaceful and perfect.
Bequia is what you imagine heaven to look
like, an artist’s playground with picturesque tones of blues and greens for the
ocean and mountains and every other colour for the homes, boats and people that
compose the natural scenery. Many people from around the world regularly
converge on the island and have made long term friends there. It’s not
difficult to see why as you can pass by the same faces a few times in a day
with the social hub of activity focused in the restaurants and bars lining the
Belmont Walkway. The walkway is part of the experience of Bequia and ends at
the beautiful and famous Princess Margaret Bay.
The Music Fest sponsored by Mount Gay Rum
opened with a pan night at the Frangipani, an ideal welcome to those from afar
to the Caribbean at its best. Other Festival nights included a Jazzy, more big-band
oriented night and party-type nights.
My performance was fitted into a more
relaxed afternoon setting at the Bequia Plantation Hotel. The audience
picnicked, lounged in beach chairs, lay on the grass, hugged the bars, and
leaned on coconut trees. I was no longer intimidated at being a solo,
instrumental act. All types of languages could be heard so I knew I had a
worldly audience of attentive listeners. I delivered with class and weighted my
set appropriately – as one audience member described, “As the sun hit the
guitar, it heated up and eventually caught fire!”
Being appreciated at that level by an
international audience was tear jerking to say the least, especially after they
screamed for an encore. I did an encore and left the stage euphoric to be
greeted by eager audience members, some interested in purchasing my
non-existent CD (it’s coming out in a couple months).
Bequia Music Festival 2018 was an iconic life experience for me, hopefully opening doors to more great opportunities to come. I continue to be grateful for the beautiful life music continues to carve for me.
Thank you to the organizers of Bequia Music
Fest 2018 for your warm hospitality and for this overall amazing opportunity.
Thank you for reading. If you liked what you read, please share with your friends. Look out for new blogs every Sunday.
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Stefan