BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The Barbados Rum and Food festival will be returning after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tourism Minister Lisa CummingsThe festival has relaunched under the theme “Feed the future”.
“Our team has put together not just the four nights of amazing events; we have the Cask Fest, you have the rum festival that’s going to take place, you have the St. Lawrence base event where in St. Lawrence Gap you’re going to have a mini carnival type atmosphere. We’re going to be going from one location to the other, sampling food,” said Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Lisa Cummins.
“We have 28 amazing chefs and mixologists and we have a couple of familiar names that are going to be flying in as our international partners, including from the Food Network, who are going to be here to say to all of you and to the rest of the world that Barbados competes on an international stage and can hold its own alongside the best chefs in the world,” Cummins said.
The festival had already been pre-launched in all of Barbados’ major tourism source markets including New York, the United Kingdom, Washington and Canada, and according to Cummins, there would also be a launch with an airline partner in the coming days.
She also disclosed that as part of this year’s festival, Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) has partnered with lifestyle travel magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, which will provide further international exposure for the festival and the opportunity for one of the island’s chefs to visit its New York City office.
The festival will run from October 27 to 30 and will encompass a series of six delectable events featuring 28 acclaimed chefs and mixologists.
As part of this year’s event, the ministry has partnered with the National Cultural Foundation to host monthly community-based culinary pop-up experiences which will incorporate chefs and activities from each of the communities.
This is expected to continue after the festival has ended.
