Virgin Atlantic Music Festival 2008 – Thursday October 30th 2008
Opening VIP launch party
The opening night of The Virgin Atlantic Music Festival kicked off in style with a VIP opening party at Surfer’s Café in Oistins.
The event was invitation only to sponsors, musicians and press who were greeted with a Piper champagne reception as a thank you from the organizers.
The Virgin Atlantic air hostesses went up and down Surfer’s Café serving drinks from the trolley and giving guests complimentary boxes of chocolates.
The festival was officially opened by one of the organizers, Veronica Little who said, ‘The festival would not be possible without the kind sponsorship of Virgin Atlantic, who have flown in some excellent musicians from the UK and I would especially like to thank all of the musicians involved from Barbados, the Caribbean region, the UK and Canada for taking part.”
Veronica Little said, ‘The logistics of organizing a 10 day music festival are quite complex, however my job has been made easier by the generous sponsorship of the Intimate Hotel Group who have accommodated all the overseas musicians and Courtesy Rent a Car who have provided their transport.”
Surfer’s Café in Oistins provided an excellent venue as the back wall of the café is open on to Oistins Bay, and the musicians played on a stage with the gentle lapping of the waves as the backdrop.
The first band to perform were Fighting Traffic from Barbados, who played their original brand of funk and warmed up the audience for the much awaited return of The Martin Harley Band, who has performed to much acclaim in the 2007 Virgin Atlantic Music Festival.
The Martin Harley Band, which comprised of Martin Harley on slide guitar and lead vocals, Pete Swotton on drums and Alex Roberts on bass had the entire audience in raptures as they played their unique sound of folk and blues with a rock edge.
The entire evening was filmed by Crucial Productions to be aired on CaribVizion in 23 Caribbean countries and Florida on three occasions throughout 2009.