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Novie, Ancient Man to perform at Tour of The Bahamas By Thea Rutherford ~ Guardian National Correspondent ~ thea@nasguard.com: This year the annual Tour of The Bahamas is going to be doing things a little bit differently. The three-phase cycling race that has drawn international competitors to the country for the past six years will add all-day entertainment to its schedule on Saturday, January 23 and Sunday, January 24 in the parking lot of the Clifton Heritage Park. Bahamian performing favorites Novie Pierre and Ancient Man will headline the race day concert on Saturday. The lineup continues with a variety of exciting acts, including the performers of the weekly open mike event, Express Yourself. When the musicians aren't performing live, LCS Productions will keep the race crowd warmed up with recorded music. "People will get a taste of Bahamian music," said Christine Gangelhoff, music coordinator for the event. "There's going to be all styles . . . and Bahamian musicians performing reggae, rap, soca, rock — something for everyone." The Tour begins at 8:30 on Saturday morning with the circuit race and continues at 2:30 p.m. with the time trials. The road race will be held on Sunday at 8:30 a.m. The live musical performances will be held in between the circuit race and the time trials. The festivities continue into the night with two parties to be held at the Wyndham. The first begins at 6 p.m. on Friday during registration. The second party, an addition to the annual tour schedule, will begin at 7:30 on Saturday evening. Organizers say that this new move is to attract more local audiences to a race that has remained popular over the years internationally. While the Tour of The Bahamas (TOB) has hosted world class cyclists and Tour de France alumni like Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie, it has not drawn as many resident spectators as organizers would have liked. "We're trying to make it more spectator-friendly," said cycle enthusiast John Cox. "We want more Bahamians to come out to watch the races. It's really a fun thing to do." Cox said that organizers hoped that the all-day entertainment, which includes food and drinks, will encourage spectators to watch both the morning and the afternoon races on Saturday. "In the past, in between the stages it would be the race action and then it would die off," said Cox. "What we're trying to do this year is to have entertainment throughout the entire day to hopefully draw the crowd, draw a Bahamian audience and all of the fan base . . . and get people to stick around." Organizers continue to have high hopes for the expansion of the event, presented by Holowesko Partners and the Ministry of Tourism. "This is our sixth year of having the Tour of The Bahamas in hopes that it will grow into something that becomes really interesting, like a sports tourism event where we can get a lot of people to come down to watch it," said Cox.
Friday January 22, 2010 |
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