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Patrons at the Rock the Rock concert.??(C. Lashley/BGIS)??

Barbadians have been encouraged to continue to support local artistes and promoters who invest "significant dollars" in staging music festivals.

This plea has come from Minister of Culture, Stephen Lashley, as he opened the inaugural Rock the Rock Concert last Saturday, at Bath, St. John.

He reminded persons in attendance that Government and the Ministry with responsibility for culture would continue to support the expansion of the music industry. He said: "We have a very important bit of legislation coming up – the Cultural Industries Development Bill which will make it easier for promoters and practitioners to do things like this Rock [the Rock Concert]."

In congratulating the organisers for having the foresight to stage such an event, he noted that the concert had received his endorsement from its inception, saying, "…and, this is really where festivals are going in Barbados. We [not only] want to seek to create more avenues for our artistes to perform [and] make money, but also to exhibit Barbados as an international destination for festivals of different genres of music.

"So, in addition to the Crop Over Festival, we want to ensure that we can project different genres of music and turn that into an opportunity not only for you the spectators and participants to come and enjoy, but hopefully, as this event grows, to have an opportunity for our artistes to participate in an event in which we can actually get a lot of returns, both in Barbados and outside [of this country]."
The one-day concert, which was the brainchild of local artiste John Roett, featured various local rock bands and vocalists and attracted a wide cross section of Barbadians.

cathy.lashley@barbados.gov.bb

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