The THE (Tourism Helps Everyone) Foundation has secured around $400,000 in sponsorship for "A Classical Night to Remember", featuring five-time Grammy- winning soprano Kathleen Battle, to be held at the new Berkeley Institute's Recital Hall on October 2 ? a week on Monday.

A copy of an invitation obtained by the states: "This event is being produced under the auspices of the THE Foundation, a charitable organisation whose purpose is to raise money to help offset the price of certain costly Tourism activities. Net proceeds of this event will be used to help offset the costs of production of the 2006 Bermuda Music Festival."

Hollywood superstar couple Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones are among the list of sponsors for the concert, which is being held under the patronage of Tourism and Transport Minister Ewart Brown and his wife Wanda Henton Brown. Dr. Brown said yesterday that the charity had applied for registered charity status, but had not yet received it. He added that THE would make no direct payments to Government.

An official from the Registrar General's office confirmed that the organisation did not appear on the registered charities list, but was "in the process".

Applications for charitable status are sent to the Registrar General, who then submits them for consideration by the Charity Commissioners.

Under the Charities Act 1978, only when approval is granted and the charity is listed can the organisation solicit or receive donations.

When we asked when the THE application was due up before the Commissioners, the official said she could reveal no more information.

An official from the Centre on Philanthropy, an umbrella organisation for many Bermuda charities, said the Charity Commissioners meet on the second Tuesday of each month to consider applications and then the list of registered charities is updated as appropriate.

Dr. Brown said there had been no wrongdoing.

"An application was submitted to obtain registered charity status, but we have been informed that there are legal impediments to obtaining the registration," Dr. Brown said yesterday.

"You should know that in no instance has THE Foundation claimed that it is a registered charity. They have said that the organisation is a "charitable organisation" and that is accurate.

"Donations and sponsorships have come from far and wide. Among them are Fairmont Hotels, Coco Reef and Belmont Hills. Prominent community members have also stepped forward to help.There is absolutely nothing wrong with the private and non-profit sectors joining with Government to do things that benefit the entire community."

Dr. Brown added that his wife had come up with the idea of the Foundation.

"Upon hearing how terribly expensive it was to stage the Bermuda Music Festival, she decided to form a non-profit foundation to help to offset the cost of this and future tourism projects which benefit all of us," Dr. Brown said.

"In this initial effort, the beneficiary is the Music Festival. In future years, other programmes such as religious tourism could benefit from the Foundation's work.

"The assistance provided will not result in any direct payment to the Government. Rather, the payments will be made directly to vendors who rendered goods or services to the event."

Wealthy benefactors from the business community are listed as sponsors for the concert, as well as overseas companies, some of which have won Government contracts in recent years.

The one "diamond" sponsor is Fairmont Hotels, which has donated $50,000.

Mr. Douglas and Ms Zeta-Jones are among the seven "ruby" sponsors, who each gave $25,000, as is ACE boss Brian Duperrault and Don Coleman, of GlobalHue, the American marketing company which last year secured the $13.2-million contract as the Tourism Department's principal advertising agency.

Two other US companies which have done work for the Bermuda Government appear on the list of nine "emerald" sponsors, who gave $10,000. One is Kurron, paid $450,000 by the Health Ministry to conduct a survey of King Edward VII Memorial Hospital three years ago.

The other is Fiduciary Investment Solutions (FIS) Group, a consultant for the Government pension fund. The Philadelphia-based company hit the headlines last April, when this newspaper revealed that Tina Byles Poitevien, then of FIS, sent out invitations to pension fund managers and stockbrokers, who were invited to pay $2,500 each to Dr. Brown to have lunch with him at a Washington restaurant in 2002.

Dr. Brown answered allegations that the lunch was a case of "pay to play" ? when businesses give money to a politician to boost their chances of getting some Government business ? by saying that he was raising money for his election campaign.

The Coco Reef and Belmont Hills hotels, XL boss Brian O'Hara, former Premier Sir John Swan and Dr. and Mrs. Brown all appear among the $10,000 sponsors.

The invitation states that only 250 "individual patron tickets", costing $1,000 each, are available for the concert.

Ms Battle is a world-renowned soprano. The concert invitation quotes as describing her voice as "without qualification, one of the very few most beautiful in the world".