The Tourism De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny (TDC) con­tin­ues to give en­thu­si­as­tic sup­port to Pan Jazz, New York's pre­mier steel­pan and jazz event which was held on June 19, at the Lin­coln Cen­tre, New York. This is part of TDC's con­tin­u­ing thrust to gain fur­ther in­ter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion for the vi­brant and dy­nam­ic lo­cal cul­tur­al en­ter­tain­ment in­dus­try, while util­is­ing cul­ture as a valu­able tool for po­si­tion­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go as a des­ti­na­tion of choice. "The TDC has pro­vid­ed en­cour­age­ment and sup­port for this event over the last two years and this year, more than ever, we saw an event that has blos­somed and come in­to its own," said Ernest Lit­tles, TDC's Pres­i­dent and Di­rec­tor of Tourism.

"The Pan Jazz Con­cert and pre-con­cert Fes­ti­val pro­vid­ed an op­por­tu­ni­ty for T&T to gain pos­i­tive ex­po­sure, not on­ly as a de­sir­able des­ti­na­tion for leisure hol­i­days, but as the Caribbean's 'Cul­ture Cap­i­tal' par­tic­u­lar­ly as we con­tin­ue to strength­en the des­ti­na­tion's rep­u­ta­tion as 'The Land of Fes­ti­vals'," he added. At­tract­ing a wealthy and in­flu­en­tial au­di­ence, in­clud­ing New York Sen­a­tor Charles Schumer, US Con­gress­woman Yvette Clarkes and Jan­ice Combs–moth­er of rap­per and en­tre­pre­neur Sean "P Did­dy" Combs–this year's Pan Jazz event was larg­er than the one host­ed in 2009, at­tract­ing a sold-out au­di­ence of 1,200. Em­ceed by for­mer Miss Uni­verse Wendy Fitzwilliam, the con­cert and fes­ti­val in­tro­duced the au­di­ence to sev­er­al as­pects T&T's cul­ture, in­clud­ing tra­di­tion­al folk­lore.?

"Pan Jazz was a stim­u­lat­ing, well-ex­e­cut­ed event that suc­ceed­ed in en­ter­tain­ing guests and show­cas­ing Caribbean cul­ture, with Trinidad & To­ba­go's na­tion­al in­stru­ment, the steel­pan, as the fo­cal point of the con­cert," said Jacque­line He­witt of Mar­ket­ing Chal­lenges In­ter­na­tion­al, T&T's des­ti­na­tion mar­ket­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives. In ad­di­tion to dancers dressed in elab­o­rate cos­tumes of folk­lore char­ac­ters, de­signed by mas de­sign­er Bri­an Mac Far­lane, the pre-con­cert fes­ti­val in­clud­ed a per­for­mance from the Laven­tille Rhythm Sec­tion, a rum tast­ing, and a T&T booth where des­ti­na­tion give­aways and in­for­ma­tion on the twin-is­land Re­pub­lic were dis­trib­uted to guests.

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For ad­di­tion­al in­for­ma­tion, con­tact Mar­cia La Bor­de, Pub­lic Af­fairs Man­ag­er at 645 7034 or via email mlabor­de@tdc.co.tt