Alicia Keys, Beyoncé Knowles, Collie Buddz and the UB40 are just four of the star-studded artistes set to take part in this year's Bermuda Music Festival.

Last week, The Royal Gazette spoke with the international promoter Rock Newman, of Gibraltar Promotions and he promised he, David Durham of Yoshi Productions Ltd., and to please both younger and more mature audiences during this year's Festival.

Tickets for all four October nights went on sale at 6 a.m. this morning for residents, while tickets will be open to everyone across the globe on Thursday.

At yesterday's press conference at the Fairmont Hamilton Premier Dr. Ewart Brown suggested: "In '08 you simply cannot wait until it is too late."

Aside from the above the other performers will be reggae greats The Whispers, Aaron Neville, Solange Knowles, sister of Beyoncé and Lyfe Jennings.

Mr. Newman, who is great friends with Mr. Durham and is an alumnus of Howard University, said that he became involved with the Bermuda Music Festival a few years ago.

"I attended the Festival for the first time in 2006 and I became good friends with David Durham, who was the Festival director," said Mr. Newman, who hails from Las Vegas.

"And I have been have been here numerous times over the last couple of years and I have absolutely fallen in love with this place.

"So I met David Durham at that Festival and he recognised me from being in the news and on TV in the States and we became really fast friends and he encouraged me to come here more often and look at various opportunities and it didn't take much encouraging because me and my wife have just fallen in love with this place.

"I also knew, although I hadn't stayed in much touch, I knew Dr. Brown and so over time the more I came here and the more I got familiar with the territory, the more I loved the place.

"Speaking about his love of Bermuda, Mr. Newman said: "I have an interesting feeling about Bermuda and it has never been something that I have quite been able to put into words.

"When I step off the plane onto the tarmac I have a feeling of absolute connection, now that sounds aethereal and I know it does, but it is real. Conversely, no matter how long I stay here, when I get ready to leave, it feels as if I am leaving home.

"And I love everything about Bermuda, I love the climate, the water, the friendliness of the people, I love the beauty and when it is stormy.

"I and my wife, Demetria, have been out to Horseshoe Bay on a number of occasions and watched the sun come up over the Atlantic with my mouth hung open each time.

"It's like, I'm addicted to Bermuda."This love then turned from just a love of the place into something more before last year's Bermuda Music Festival.

"David and I became such friends that we talk literally everyday, and I had a very interesting experience and it must have been very late July and I got a call from David and from the Premier and they did not have an opening act or a closing act for the Festival at that time," explained Mr. Newman.

"When I got the call, I was in the midst of one of my dearest friends who was terminally ill, so I certainly wanted to try to help David and the Premier, but the reason why they called me was because they had a sense that I was pretty well connected in the entertainment and sports industry, and they asked if I could help out.

."It is not anything that I have tried to take a bow for, bragged about or anything else, but I quietly set about it and at the same time, day-by-day we were losing my friend.

"I worked on getting an opening act and that was the O'Jays last year, who did a fabulous job and then Earth Wind and Fire, who to my understanding the Premier was told were not available.

"Here is what happened, I drove across country from Las Vegas to New Jersey, where my friend was in the hospital, and all across country I was literally working and trying to get the Earth Wind and Fire deal.

"I get to the hospital and I spent the entire day with my friend and we make arrangements, he wanted to leave New Jersey to go home in North Carolina. He was my baseball coach in Howard University.

"His last wish was to get to Gastonia, North Carolina, to see his dad before he died. So we worked through the night to get an air ambulance and when I was walking down the hall next to his bed, I go the call saying that Earth Wind and Fire had agreed to come to Bermuda. Knowing how desperate everyone was for them to come here, they really were coveted.

"You are talking about a dual moment and feelings from one extreme to the other and being so extraordinarily elated to get the call that I had delivered them while I was walking beside my friend.

"He got to see his dad and died the next day. So last summer and this Festival is forever tied to my life in just a strange kind of way and being at the (Fairmont Southampton) beach and seeing the O Jays and going through the whole Festival experience and seeing the sheer joy that people had for all of the nights, it really made me consider what had been David's suggestion and request that I get fully involved.

"After the Government put the Bermuda Music Festival out to tender, he said: "After it was over we talked and you know, the Government put out an RFP and my company Gibraltar Promotions LLC was selected to be the producer this year and we have set about to make this, the 13th year, more special than it has ever been before.

"We look to provide more first of all big named talent, with more current appeal, while at the same time being names that will keep the older Bermudians that will broaden the demographics, were every segment of the community will be happy.

"I think in the past there has been some sense that it has been primarily for an older or just R&B and what we have now is truly something for everyone.

"Something that every 22-year-old on the Island would be happy about and something that the crowd who has by and large supported it in the past will be happy about and everybody in between, black, white, Hispanic, Portuguese, Indian, there will be a little something for everybody and we are extremely happy about it.

"He then shared with this paper who the main players would be under the understanding of yesterday's embargo.

"On Wednesday at the Beach, that is always old school night, and we've go the Whisper's," he said, whilst attempting to sing one of their hits "Rock Steady."

"Jump to Friday, then we have UB40, and right now I am looking for that act that is going to supplement them. I have a couple of different angles, one is sort of a Reggae act that is a little bit younger could be a Collie Buddz and we've talked to Damien Marley, but I don't think they can do it and I might go a whole 'nother route, but it will be hot. Saturday, I have Aaron Neville (Tell it Like it Is) and the Neville Brothers and they are opening for Alicia Keys.

"If you go t msn.com and Dove is doing a thing with her right now and she's on tour and just selling everything out.

"The younger crowd loves her, the older crowd loves her she has crossover appeal black, white, everybody. She is so extraordinarily talented singer, songwriter, producer, arranger, you know, just talent extraordinaire. She is getting ready to blow up and get into some movies, just the one.

"Now that is Saturday, let's come back to Thursday, Solange, that is Beyoncé's sister, she is dropping an album this summer that by the time that October comes, people right now aren't sure, but she did something a couple of years ago, but she got married or had a baby or whatever and I think that when she drops this thing in July, by September she will be on the radar screen.

"And another guy Lyfe Jennings, you might not know him by name, but the song he sings he starts like this 'Somebody is Gonna Thank me for this, and it's 'Let's Stay Together' and the two of them are opening for Beyoncé. And no one in their remotest mind imagining that we could have Alicia Keys and Beyoncé. This Island is going to be crazy!"

Increasing the number of Festival ravers is the aim for Mr. Newman."My thinking is that in the past the average was around ten to 11,000 people, my aim is to double that and I think that with this line up, we can do that!" he said.

"My design has been to make everybody happy that has supported it before and to seriously broaden the base.

"The press conference is on the 20th and Steve Harvey is going to be the host and he is going to broadcast from here. Already we have XM (Satellite) Radio coming in and they are going to be broadcasting from here during the week of the Festival also and that is satellite radio, so that is all over the country and in the Caribbean, so they are on board.

"Radio 1 and TV1, which is owned by Kathy Hughes, they have one of the biggest conglomerates they have a half billion dollar company and they are going to be coming at next week (this week) and they are going to be doing a TV special on Bermuda.

"She just recently interviewed Denzel Washington, Quincy Jones and Barack Obama, so she is doing a feature on the Island and will be talking to the Premier and as chairman of the board, she also has a talk show on the TV1. So there is going to be so many big things for Bermuda, we know we are going to get international exposure, which is far beyond what it has ever gotten before

"It is hard for me to go to sleep at night, I am so excited about it."So of that has happened and David who encouraged me to do this is ultimately familiar with the Festival, having worked as Festival director, for a couple of years, so he is my partner and we have joined forces and his company Yoshi Productions Ltd. and Gibraltar Productions will be responsible for all that is BMF this year.

"It is an exciting time and I would just stress and we are giving the people of Bermuda that unique opportunity to purchase tickets before the general public.

"We want this to be the best entertainment experience from top to bottom, from A to Z, from the purchasing the tickets to leaving the stadium that there has ever been. We have some production twists and surprises that have a real wow and awe effect and we really want to give them all of the respect to all of the Bermudians that have made this successful.

"It is certainly a tourism event and it is great to attract the tourists, and it will unquestionably attract more tourists than ever before, but the backbone of the success of this event is that Bermudians have supported it.

"There are going to be several Bermudian acts that are going to be a part of it and everyday I get into a cab I ask how they feel about the Festival and who they like to see and what can be good about it, because we want all Bermudians to feel ownership of it. Because ultimately with these high profile names, the paparazzi will be all over the place.

"We have UB40 coming out of the UK, Beyoncé and Alicia Keys and all that she is doing.

"This is a coo, getting Beyoncé, because she hasn't performed in quite sometime and right as we speak, she does not have anything planned before this performance, not to say that this won't happen, but it may be the first time that anyone will get to see her perform in more than a year.

"She's been married and it is a whole rumour whether Jay Z is coming, this Island is going to be overrun. Someone said to me that there is not a Bermudian abroad that cannot afford to come back for this one. So between that and the tourists, this is truly an exciting time.

"Tickets are available from 6 a.m. this morning from www.bermudatourism.com/presell, the concierge desks at both Fairmont Hamilton Princess and Fairmont Southampton, and in St. George's at Café Latte.