Crowds of 5,000 projected for first rum festival
Published:Wednesday | February 6, 2019 | 12:00 AM
The Jamaican government is giving $10 million of backing to the inaugural Jamaica Rum Festival, most of which will be spent on setting up an artisan village at the venue, according to Tourism Enhancement Fund head Dr Carey Wallace.
The organisers of the event planned for March 9-10 at Hope Gardens in Kingston are projecting that ticket sales will bring in another $8 million, based on expectations that 2,500 patrons will attend the festival on each of the two days, amounting to 5,000 persons overall. The tickets are priced at $1,500 per person.
Food and other items sold at the venue will add to the take.
The festival is being organised by J. Wray & Nephew Limited’s (JWN) Appleton Estate Jamaica Rum brand in partnership with the Jamaica Tourist Board and the TEF .The overall budget for staging the event was not disclosed.
Director of marketing for J. Wray & Nephew Jacopo Borsa, told theFinancial Gleaner that the spend on the festival was incorporated in the Appleton brand’s “advertising and promotion” budget and that the economic impact would be tallied later. The event will feature JWN’s products, as well as those from other producers in the rum sector.
Important to Jamaica
“Rum is an important part of imbibing in Destination Jamaica,” Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett said at Tuesday’s media launch of the festival. “The spirit of the people comes out of the product of the people.”
Jamaican rums are the preferred spirits at hotels but even so, imported wines are more consumed, the tourism minister said.
Christopher Gentles, the general manager at Spirits Pool Association Limited, said Jamaica’s rum sector exports some 20 to 24 million litres of absolute overproof alcohol, which converts to roughly 50 million litres of less concentrated alcohol, annually. The 87-year-old Spirits Pool Association represents all six rum distilleries in Jamaica. Bartlett said in his presentation that globally, 1.3 billion litres of rum is consumed by drinkers annually, a figure that is projected to grow to 2.0 billion litres by 2030.