Spare tickets to next week's Bermuda Music Festival will be available to those on the waiting list because they did not sell in the United States.

This according to Rock Newman, of Gibraltar Promotions, who was at a press conference yesterday with Premier and Tourism Minister Ewart Brown and local producer David and Sancha Durham, of Yoshi Productions, at the National Stadium.

In front of the concert stage with banners depicting star acts Alicia Keys and Beyonce, Mr. Newman said tickets would be available for Bermudians on the waiting list as there were some returning unsold from America.

"We know there are some tickets that are going to come back from the US. What we are going to do is honour the waiting list," he said.

"We have their information and we are contacting these individuals first. In the future, if we are involved, we have seen how we can increase the concert population by about 4,000 seats."

He added that he did not want to speculate on how many tickets would be available and that he would have a better idea by tomorrow.

He also encouraged anyone with deeper pockets to buy the last remaining Trophy Suite, which costs $60,000 a night, $180,000 for the full three days and offers an air-conditioned viewing of the performers. For more information contact Mr. Newman on 505 1162.

In May, 12,000 tickets for the event were made available, with tickets for Beyoncé and Alicia Keys selling out in a matter of minutes. The speed with which the tickets sold out left many disgruntled members of the public.

Pregnancy rumours surrounding the appearance of Beyonce at the Festival were also squashed by Mr. Newman who said a revealing photo with her and singer Justin Timberlake last week showed a flat stomach.

Mr. Newman said she is also planning on coming to Bermuda earlier than initially planned to shoot an ad for her clothing line and Beyonce's latest CD set to debut in November.

Also announced yesterday was an education component as well as the Onion Stage, which features Bermudian artists.

According to Ms. Durham the two daughters of Joseph Simmons a.k.a. "Reverend Run" of the group Run DMC, Vanessa and Angela Simmons, will be talking to students at the Ruth Seaton James Auditorium on Thursday afternoon.

She added: "Last year the Onion Stage had it's own entity and we wanted to turn it around and get just as much respect as the foreign artists. We wanted to make sure they could view them on the screens."

Local talent, such as The Bermuda Mass Choir, United Dance Productions, Troy Anthony, Bermuda Idol Larrita Adderley, Twanae Butterfield, Warner Gombeys Troupe, and H & H Gombeys, will be performing on the main stage.

In July, Dr. Brown defended the cost of the festival saying it was about branding and said that it had been sold out. It is thought Beyonce is being paid $500,000 with up to $500,000 expenses.

At the time he said: "This is branding. It's already known around the world that Bermuda's festival is sold out and the entertainers we were fortunate to get this year we cannot get for peanuts."

Yesterday, Dr. Brown said he was excited about the festival, which was going to attract stars with close to 20 Grammy awards between them.

"It's Festival time and I am excited. And based on the emails I've been getting, much of this country is excited too. Never before have such premier artists performed together in an environment like this.

"This is a historical event for Bermuda and we will be afforded unprecedented media exposure thanks to our star-studded line up."