Food and Rum Festival moves to October

The 2018 Barbados Food and Rum Festival will see some changes as the entity charged with its promotion looks to further refine and develop the series for the long haul.

The first major announcement made by CEO of the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) William ‘Billy’ Griffith of the highly anticipated culinary experience, which is now in its ninth year, is the shift from November to October.

He said the change comes as BTMI continues to listen to the feedback from its local stakeholders, who have requested assistance in driving business during this slightly “softer” period.

“But, we didn’t just change the date, we met with restaurateurs, chefs, mixologists and even event promoters with the idea of expanding the Barbados Food and Rum Festival [from] just four days to a month-long experience. You can therefore expect to see Food and Rum food truck crawls, restaurant specials, bar pop-ups and more this October, in addition to your usual festival favourites,” he told business partners and media personnel gathered for the launch at Hugo’s Restaurant on Thursday night.

“It is important for us at the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. that we deliver a product that both satisfies the appetite of our audience, while perfecting those unique selling points for which destination Barbados is known and loved.”

The second change announced is the move away from the model that saw multiple international chefs flown in for the Festival, to one that maximises the exposure of the plethora of local culinary talent.

“We have seen our local talent grow exponentially over the past nine years of the festival. We now have a pool of award-winning chefs and mixologists that cannot be contained to our previous model,” Griffith pointed out.

The main events
The BTMI CEO said that this year’s festival will run from October 18th to 21st.

The Festival begins on Thursday, October 18th as usual in the south, with the free open-air fish fry – Night Out in Oistins.

On Friday, October 19, in the north, BTMI will transform Limegrove Lifestyle Centre for the Taste of the Exotic Signature Rum Event. According to Griffith “Food and fun will be infused in this night of cocktails, canapes and sizzlingBajan entertainment… This was our most popular event last year with a completely sold out crowd, with visitors flying from the Caribbean, Los Angles, New York and cities around the UK, to be part of the fun.”

Those persons who prefer the Festival’s dining experience, can expect an expanded Gourmet Safari Dinner Series, on Saturday, October 20. He recalled that the series previously incorporated only three restaurants but has now been opened up to several local standalones, and hotel restaurants across the island.

The climax on Sunday, October 21 will be hosted at Holder’s Polo Field with the Taste the Spirits of Polo, marrying the tradition of Polo on Sunday’s with refreshing specialty cocktails and food stations.

“I invite all Barbadians to get out and experience the Festival in one of the many avenues we are offering. We are confident that there will be something for every palate and at every price point, to ensure that no Barbadian is left out of this celebration,” the CEO assured. (TL)