Entertainment, Nightlife and Festivals
Though St Lucia isn't exactly the nightlife capital of the Caribbean, there's plenty to do after dark. Many hotels and restaurants in the west coast resort areas offer some sort of live music or dancing most nights of the week, and between Castries and Cap Estate, and particularly at Rodney Bay, there are numerous bars and restaurants where you can have a drink or a meal while listening to anything from a traditional chak-chak group to the hotter licks of a reggae, calypso or steel-pan band. The best source of current entertainment information is local newspapers and the tourist publication Tropical Traveller ( ). In early or mid-May, the island plays host to the St Lucia Jazz Festival ( ), which has attracted some of the jazz and R&B worlds' biggest names - including Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis and George Benson. The four-day event takes place at several venues, the main ones being Pigeon Island, the Cultural Centre on the outskirts of Castries and Great House in Cap Estate. Some shows are free, but for most you'll need to pay an entrance fee (US$38-50), or you can buy a pass giving entry to all of the events for around US$230. A round of dancing, street masquerading and general partying, St Lucia's July Carnival (called Jounen Kweyol in Patois) is one of the true showcases of the island's culture, with storytelling, folk dancing and traditional music afforded as much prominence as the more contemporary Carnival melee of sequinned bikinis and thumping soca music. Carnival information is available from the tourist board in St Lucia (tel 758/452-4094 or 5968, fax 453-1121, ), and from offices abroad.
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