to a new initiative involving local amateur entertainment, organisers said.

"This year's Harbour Nights was great,'' exclaimed Chamber of Commerce marketing and events coordinator Khristina Lambert after her first year at the helm of the Wednesday night street festival.

And seasoned veteran Corporation of Hamilton secretary Roger Sherratt added: "I think it was a very successful year overall.'' The 1998 Harbour Nights schedule kicked off in April with a new scheme to attract crowds -- the Bank of Bermuda sponsored Buskers Nights.

Bank spokeswoman Karen Madeiros said: "We are the major sponsor and we were interested in doing something different this year.'' Promoting the amateur entertainers was the theme the bank picked up on in the hope it would boost community and visitor interaction.

The nights gave local entertainers the chance to perform on Front Street alongside the vendors on one Wednesday night of each month.

Instead of performing for cash, the buskers performed for votes from festival goers and the top buskers from each night competed against one another on the event's last night.

And 25 evenings later, the very talented duo Mick and Giordano won with their accordion and banjo playing coupled with singing and dancing routines.

Mr. Sherratt praised the new initiative as well.

"Certainly the Chamber has worked very hard to make sure it does not stay the same year after year and having the buskers this year added a little extra sparkle to it.

"Certainly there were some good numbers counted at the height of the summer.'' And Mrs. Lambert said: "The Chamber was very pleased with the turnouts. The buskers were incredible and the bank did a wonderful job.

"This was something that had never been brought to Bermuda before and after this year we should see the busker programme growing.'' Meanwhile Mr. Sherratt also backed the idea of a seventh year of Harbour Nights.

"I am sure that it will be back again next year. We will be looking at what the Corporation can do to make sure Front Street is still a fun place to be.'' Mrs. Lambert said the Chamber of Commerce was looking at improvements it could make to the event next year.

A priority, she continued, was to increase the number of nights that the Gombeys performed as visitors and local alike were clamouring for the brightly coloured dance troupes.

And ways at boosting the amount of local entertainment on display by revamping the Buskers Nights was also on the cards, she added.

Ms Madeiros disclosed: "The Bank of Bermuda is considering its involvement in next year's Harbour Nights.'' In previous years, Harbour Nights has been plagued by a few trouble makers, content in spoiling others' fun.

But Mr. Sherratt said there had been an improvement in this area.

"We did have some problems during the summer. Generally speaking we had worse problems in previous years and we were beginning to have problems this year.'' These were nipped in the bud by joint initiatives between the Corporation and the Bermuda Police Service.

" I think the measures taken, having extra Police and reserve constables on the scene, helped. Overall there weren't really bad problems and the vast majority of young people behaved very well.'' ENTERTAINMENT ENT