PRESIDENT of the Trelawny Chamber of Commerce, Richard Bourke, says the Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival has given the parish an encouraging economic bump since it was first held there in 2010.

The 16th staging of the annual event starts today at the Greenfield Stadium, just outside Falmouth, Trelawny’s chief town. Bourke, who is also manager at the Breezes Trelawny Hotel, told the Observer that persons involved in the tourist industry have benefited most from the festival.

“The hotels, guest houses and villas all do well. There is also incremental employment for handymen, security, caterers, plumbers, electricians, etc,” he explained.

Bourke says while the 350-room Breezes Trelawny gets its share of Jazz fans, it is smaller, more affordable properties like Silver Sands in Duncans and Fisherman’s Inn, which gets the bulk of business.

The Greenfield Stadium is the festival’s fourth home. It started in 1996 in Montego Bay at the Wyndham Rose Hall property, before moving two years later to the James Bond Beach in Oracabessa, St Mary.

After a five-year stay in St Mary, organisers returned to Montego Bay at Cinnamon Hill golf course. Its next location was the nearby Aqueduct which, like Wyndham Rose Hall and Cinnamon Hill, is owned by the Rollins family of the United States.

Two years ago, they settled on the Greenfield Stadium, a multi-million dollar complex which was built for the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

Though it has hosted domestic cricket and football competitions, the Greenfield Stadium is under-utilised. Bourke believes the Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival may be the best publicity the site has got since it hosted the Cricket World Cup’s opening ceremony nearly five years ago.

“It gets the word out that the stadium is still here and available and that’s very important,” he said. “We need more events like this for the venue or the stadium will become a white elephant.”

Opening night of the Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival pays tribute to Jamaica’s 50th year of independence from Britain which came in August, 1962. Artistes representing the evolution of the country’s popular music will perform.

Canadian superstar Celine Dion, headliner for the three-day show, performs tomorrow. Rhythm and Blues performers Cee Lo Green, the Temptations Revue and Heads of State, and reggae singer Damian Marley, are some of the acts billed for Saturday.