Tourism Minister Dr Ernest Hilaire hailed the 2025 Saint Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival as the largest in its history, boasting record attendance and expanded programming – but conceded that logistical challenges, including traffic bottlenecks and mishandled media access, must be urgently addressed for future events.
Speaking at Monday’s pre-cabinet press briefing, Hilaire emphasised the festival’s achievements, crediting organisers and service providers for delivering a sprawling lineup that drew massive crowds. Yet as postmortem discussions begin, the minister acknowledged two persistent pain points: infrastructure limitations at Pigeon Island and the sidelining of local media.
With only one access road to the National Park, traffic congestion plagued attendees, a problem Hilaire admitted has dogged the event for years.
“The event is outgrowing the infrastructure we have,” he conceded, citing failed park-and-ride attempts since the 2007 Cricket World Cup.
“The cultural habits of Saint Lucians don’t help either. People want to park as close as possible to the venue and leave quickly,” he said. “If you let everyone park around the park, it could take three hours to get out.”
Hilaire said festival events were well received overall: “There were some disappointments with one or two performances, but largely, the performances were fantastic.”
The minister also addressed backlash over local media being denied customary access, calling it “totally unacceptable” and issuing a public apology. “Under my watch, this won’t happen again,” he vowed, revealing directives to fix the issue mid-festival were ignored.
While withholding blame, Hilaire pledged accountability: “Action will be taken to ensure it does not happen again… The media deserves better treatment than that.”
Despite these hurdles, Hilaire remained bullish about the festival’s artistic success and future growth. “God willing,” he added, “we will have an even bigger and better festival [in 2026],” he said, with solutions for traffic and media relations now prioritised in planning.
