International media get first taste of Barbados’ Food and Rum Festival

As Barbados geared up to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Barbados Food and Rum Festival, international media representatives were invited to get a first-hand view and taste of the mouth-watering cuisine that has made this island the culinary capital of the Caribbean and the historic rum, for which the island has become renown.

This was all facilitated by the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI), which hosted a media reception at the Mount Gay Visitors’ Centre located on the Mighty Grynner Highway yesterday. Officials from the international press experienced a tour and tasting session, at that facility.

Aprille Thomas, Communications and PR Manager with the BTMI explained that this aspect of the event, which has been rebranded from the prior “Food, Wine and Rum Festival”, is designed to give media from the country’s various source markets, a chance to experience what is on offer, so they in turn can spread the word abroad.

“Each year, we have the Food and Rum Festival and a big part of that is bringing journalists here from our top source markets, to experience that and to take it back. We are doing a mix of journalists and digital influencers this year, so we have our social media influencers in from across our source markets. This year, we have all of our source markets represented, so we have media here from the US, UK, Canada, Caribbean and Latin America and Europe. We have over thirty here on the island with us,” Thomas remarked.

“So what we are doing, in addition to exposing them to the actual Food and Rum Festival, we have created this specific media launch just to bring them all together, to get them to talk to our CEO, talk to our marketing team, meet the award winning Barbados culinary team. So we’re just trying to bring as many influencers as it relates to the food and rum, so that they can get the opportunity to have any interviews they want to have, discuss anything they want with them, get photos etc.” she further explained.

Thomas meanwhile noted that Barbadians on a whole can experience the Food and Rum Festival over the four-day period, October 24 to October 27, 2019. Last night, Thursday October 24 saw the “Night Out in Oistins” event, signalling the opening of the Festival at the Oistins Bay Garden in Christ Church. Tonight, Friday October 25 will be the “Gourmet Safari Dine Around”, where participating restaurants will give visitors and locals alike the best food experiences, based on their bookings. On Saturday October 26, the new event dubbed the “Food Truck Mash Up” will come on stream, allowing persons to sample the best street food Barbados has to offer, on location at the Pelican Village in St. Michael, from 2 pm until midnight. The Festival comes to a close on Sunday October 27 with “Epicure, An Evening of Elegance” which will seek to celebrate the event’s ten years of existence. This will take place at Ilaro Court, Two Mile Hill, St. Michael from 6.30 pm.