Sugar And Rum Festival kicks off

BAJAN SUGAR and rum are about

to take pride of place when the first ever Sugar And Rum Festival comes off between February and April.

There are 24 season events taking place between February 10 and April 1: mixology road shows, classes in Caribbean cooking with rum and molasses, rum cocktail tours and candlelight dinners with rum at rum refineries, and themed tours and candlelight dinners at Sunbury Plantation.

The festival kicked off with a media launch at Sunbury on Tuesday night, setting the stage for the festival during which the two ingredients will be the main feature at dining and cocktail events around the island.

Chief executive officer of the Barbados Tourism Product Authority, Dr Kerry Hall, the brains behind the idea, described it as “a transformational initiative” that would take tourism industry to the next level.

Hall said as the place where rum was first made, a little known fact, Barbados must take ownership and use it to push a unique feature of the island to set it apart from the proverbial sand, sea and sun destination.

Hall said all the local rum producers were on board and that the spin-off from the festival would allow ordinary Barbadians to share in the tourism pie. (GC)