Jazz festival will go ahead next month despite the loss of hotel beds from the Sonesta and Southampton Princess which are shut for repairs after Hurricane Fabian.

Tourism Minister Renee Webb said those two large hotels were the key ones for Jazz Festival guests. Last year more than 1,000 overseas visitors came for the festival.

She told The Royal Gazette: "It's still going on."

Ms Webb said co-sponser BET (Black Entertainment Television) are on the island right now.

"The only concern is making sure we have enough hotel rooms, aside from that we are moving ahead. Most of the hotels are already booked.

"We will have to find out how to deal with the shortfall."

Last week the Tourism department said one quarter of Bermuda's hotels and boarding houses were closed for repairs necessitated by Hurricane Fabian.

The Sonesta will be closed until May 2004 after suffering extensive roof and room damage.

The Jazz festival in Dockyard runs from October 8-12 and features international artists such as Freddie Jackson, Kenny G, BeBe Winans and Stephanie Mills.

Further details of how the Tourism department will cope with the influx of guests will be released on Tuesday said the Minister.

Some of the venues for events may have to be amended.

The opening night dinner on October 8 was due to take place at Mickey's at Elbow Beach Hotel but the shore front restaurant was destroyed by hurricane Fabian.

And the closing night was due to take place at the now closed Whaler Inn owned by the Fairmont Southampton.

General manager Norman Mastalir, who is also president of the Bermuda Hotel Association, said hotels would be meeting with Government on Tuesday to discuss how to reformat the event with some ancilliary event possibly being dropped.

Fairmont hotels are assessing how they can still co-sponsor jazz festival sponsors after massive damage at the Fairmont Southampton which will be closed for at least two and possibly six months after damage to the roof, fifth floor and spa.

The 593-room hotel, which is Bermuda's largest hotel, lost its entire 83,000 square foot roof in the hurricane.

The Hamilton Princess endured water damage to one quarter of its rooms and has around half of its rooms still out of action.

General manager Norman Mastalir said the hotel would assess this week just what contribution it could provide to Jazz Fest.

Fairmont had been due to donate 600 bed nights at Hamilton and Southampton spread over ten days for musicians and their technical entourage.

Mr. Mastalir said: "Our sponsorship contribution was to donate free hotel rooms to celebrities but we don't have them to give away."

But Mr. Mastalir agreed Jazz Fest would go on.

He said: "We need to send a message to North America that Bermuda is open and ready for their business."

He said one silver lining from hurricane Fabian was that group bookings which Fairmont had been forced to cancel were still wishing to remain in Bermuda, with hotels such as Elbow Beach taking up the slack.

"I thought after the hurricane they might want to choose another destination but they still want to come.

"I have been really quite surprised most groups we have been able to relocate."

Ironically he said the hoards of engineers and technical staff arriving in Bermuda to help its clear up after Fabian were also helping to boost hotel numbers.

"It's certainly been driving some of the increased occupancy at the Hamilton Princess."

He said he hoped the Heritage bar in the Hamilton Princess lobby would reopen this week.