Now everyone is over there,” a woman said as she gestured toward the Fairmont Hamilton Princess across the harbour. She was strolling with friends through the gardens at the Newstead Hotel one Friday evening last month.

“They used to have a band,” she continued, recalling Friday evening happy hours at the hotel last summer, when Jahstice, the reggae band, performed and at least 800 people came to listen.

That evening, there were just 50 people socialising around Newstead's pool and on the terrace above. Two bars served drinks, two less than last year (one bartender even complained of having nothing to do). And the free roast beef which quickly ran out last year was not even half-eaten before it was taken inside.

Jahstice had moved to the Princess, and so too had the crowds.

But while Newstead's is certainly not making as much money on alcohol sales as last summer, the hotel's management does not seem to miss the crowds.

“We do have a hotel to run and there are other matters besides happy hour,” said Bushara Bushara, the hotel's general manager. He said some hotel guests had complained last year about the noise and crowds.

“It's all about balance,” he said. “We are happy with the balance we have at the moment.” For the small property that we have, it was perhaps a bit overwhelming.”

“We cannot handle the crowds. We don't believe it's always conducive to good service.”

The popularity of Newstead's happy hour turned a nearby roads into a one-lane street lined with parked cars, and Police had to be called in to direct traffic. Inside the hotel, Newstead hired 12 extra contract staff to to serve patrons every Friday.

When management began planning for this summer early in the year, it entered negotiations with Jahstice. But according to bassist Andrew Packwood, the hotel decided it “wanted to go in a different direction.

Newstead's management hired Prestege to replace Jahstice, and soft reggae has seceded to music akin to the tunes played on 89.1 FM. Mr. Bushara said Jahstice was more of a “concert band” and the hotel was interested in hosting such a group perhaps once a month to avoid crowding every week.

But several other venues were courting the band for regular engagements, including Ariel Sands, Grotto Bay and the Hamilton Princess, Mr. Packwood said. In late April, Jahstice agreed to play at the Princess' Friday happy hour.

Paul Tormey, the Princess' general manager, said he and the food and beverage manager decided the hotel needed the “island sound” on the harbourfont. “That's what guests are looking for,” Mr. Tormey said.

“My intention was to attract hotel guests and other hotels and have this be seen as a good place to go for entertainment,” he continued.

But the band demonstrated its power to drive local crowds soon after it began performing on the Princess' front lawn in May. Although attendance at Newstead's first happy hours was comparable to last year, the crowds there quickly dwindled as word spread that Jahstice was playing elsewhere.

The Princess now hosts a supremely popular happy hour of the sort which did not exist before last summer, although Mr. Tormey insisted that the hotel is more interested than the quality of the evenings than the number of people who show up. He described local attendance as “a very good offshoot.”

“I am surprised that everyone has moved (from Newstead),” Mr. Tormey said. “I feel badly if we've moved everyone from the Newstead because it is a great hotel.”

(Mr. Tormey, who arrived in Bermuda last autumn, said he did not know that Jahstice had played at Newstead until a few weeks ago, after they began playing at his hotel.)

He said the Princess was a better venue, though. The expansive front lawn can handle more people than the terraces at Newstead and parking is not the issue it was at Newstead because most people can walk to the hotel from work.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the hotel's proximity to Hamilton also attracts people who did not frequent Newstead last year.

Philip Barnett, the managing partner of the Pickled Onion, said Friday happy hour at his Front Street bar and restaurant is even less busy than last summer, when numbers slumped because of business lost to Newstead. The winter is now the bar's busy season.

The move also turned out better for Jahstice. Mr. Packwood said the Princess is more suitable for the band because members can unload equipment from a van without trolleying it through garden pathways, as they did at Newstead.

The band is also commanding a much higher fee than last summer.

But the woman who was strolling around Newstead with her friends preferred that hotel. “It's beautiful here,” she said wistfully. “Their scenery is not as nice.”