سياحت بارباڊوس متضاد آهي! رم، کاڌو، ۽ وڏي تہوار

Barbados’ biggest celebration of food is back, and is now spreading beyond the Caribbean island as far as New York, the United Kingdom, Washington, and Canada,

Yesterday evening, the 2022 Barbados Food and Rum Festival under the theme Feed The Future was launched at the historic Golden Square Freedom Park in the capital city. With upcoming events leading to the festival scheduled for October 27-30, Barbados is getting ready for the fun.

An excited Barbados Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Senator Lisa Cummins, took the microphone and said:

“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 will be going from one location to the other, sampling food.  

“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 the rest of the world that Barbados competes on an international stage and can hold its own alongside the best chefs in the world.”

Senator Cummins shared that the festival had already been pre-launched in all Barbados’ major tourism source markets, including New York, the United Kingdom, Washington, and Canada. There would also be a launch with an airline partner in the coming days.

Yesterday’s local launch began with a motorcade that started at the BTMI headquarters in Warrens and went down to Golden Square Freedom Park. 

Along the way, people received branded Food and Rum Festival gear and flyers highlighting the upcoming events.  There were also impromptu performances from Peter Ram, Barbados’ 2022 Road March King, BruceLee Almighty, and dancers from Dancin’ Africa.

While at Golden Square Freedom Park, locals and visitors were treated to food and drinks from some of the best chefs and mixologists participating in the festival.

These included Damian Leach and John Hazzard, and specially crafted rum cocktails from mixologists Alex Chandler, Ryan Adamson, and David Barker.  In addition to steel pan music, there was a concert featuring Nikita, Mahalia, Biggie Irie, RPB, and Lil Rick, and patrons had the opportunity to participate in competitions and win prizes.  

This year’s Barbados Food and Rum Festival theme is “Feed the Future.” 

Here’s what the theme “Feed the Future” means to the people of Barbados:

• We pledge to support education and training opportunities for youth in areas of culinary and hospitality development.
• We recognize the role of tourism in creating and sustaining a high quality of life for Barbadians, especially as the industry rebounds from COVID-19.
• We believe Barbados must adopt sustainable practices, and through the festival, we can emphasize the importance of food security for small island developing states such as Barbados.

The Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Senator, the Hon. Lisa Cummins added:

Tourism has been the bread and butter for many Barbadians for many years. Its economic impact is felt across several related sectors, including Agriculture, Business, and Culture.

Beyond providing unique experiences for the wonderful visitors who choose Barbados as their home away from home for holidays, it is our job to ensure that tourism can contribute to the quality of life of the Barbadians who make our tourism product what it is. 

We are keen on ensuring that we continuously reinvest in our most treasured asset – our people. Therefore, we are proud to incorporate this ethos into the Barbados Food and Rum Festival.

Through the theme, Feed the Future, we are committing to paying our success forward in hopes that the next generation will see the benefits and the rewards of the work we are doing today to make Barbados tourism the premier product. This is critical as we look at building a sustainable tourism model that feeds into future generations of Barbadians. 

Training, upskilling, and retooling are key ways to ensure our future is secured by arming our human resources with the tools needed to be self-sufficient and contribute to our business sectors. That’s why this program seeks to offer opportunities to aspiring young culinary artists who will go on to lead the next generation of award-winning chefs in Barbados. 

Culinary tourism is vital to Barbados’ success, and I am pleased that this year’s Festival highlights that in a way that celebrates our present and future. Best of luck to those winners we will choose, and we look forward to watching – and tasting – all of your future successes.”

As part of this year’s event, the BTMI 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 after October 30, 2022.

دوري foodandrum.com