Found at: http://www.anguillaguide.com/article/articleprint/5824/-1/140/
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MOONSPLASH: A TOURISM WOOER FOR ANGUILLA
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They are rolling out one after the other. First it was Festival Del Mar, the newest initiative by the Anguilla Tourist Board held in conjunction with the Island Harbour community during the Easter weekend.
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The Super Fly String Band and party-goers at the Dune Preserve
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A week later it was the just-ended Moonsplash, a creation by Anguilla’s internationally-known artiste, Bankie Banx, which has grown over the years as the island’s biggest music and cultural festival. Apart from his company’s own marketing efforts, the Tourist Board is one of the strong local sponsors and promoters of the event and has been joined in the sponsorship by such large businesses like the National Bank Group of Companies and Cable and Wireless. The three were the largest financial contributors to help ensure the success of Moonsplash, particularly in recognition of the tourism gains and revenues in Accommodation Tax and other public and private sector benefits it provides.
The Dune Preserve, located at the edge of the sprawling Rendezvous Bay Beach, the uniquely and simply constructed home for Moonsplash, can easily accommodate 500 people and more inside and around its precincts. Many of those persons are tourists who made their travel bookings to Anguilla well ahead of the event and others include day trippers from the neighbouring French and Dutch Islands. The others referred here comprise a number of tourists who were already in Anguilla at the various hotels ands who, like the others, have a thirst for such local entertainment.
The Dune Preserve was a beehive of activity as usual over the duration of the just-ended Moonsplash. The indications are that it will become bigger and bigger both as a wooer of tourists and an event for a large percent of the local population.
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Bankie Banx finds comfort among members of the popular Smokey and the Boys String Band during a break at The Dune Preserve on Sunday, March 30th
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Director of Tourism, Amelia Vanterpool-Kubisch, was asked to comment on the annual event. “It is one of the events that we are promoting as one way of encouraging persons to visit Anguilla, particularly during the soft periods of the year,” she said. “Even though Moonsplash falls within the high season, we still see it as an event that draws people to the island as well as provides an activity for them to engage in. It therefore enjoys a key position in our calendar of events and attraction for the island.”
She added that the Tourist Board made its customary monetary contribution of US$25,000. In addition it lends its support by bringing travel writers to the island to write about Moonsplash and other festivals and this time also erected two publicity billboards in The Valley and at Blowing Point to create a greater awareness about the event among the local population.
Upcoming festivals include the Anguilla Regatta in May, the Summer Festival late July/early August and the Jazz Festival in November - all designed to woo tourists to the island.