Now in its 2nd staging … The Jamaica Rum Festival, happened on Saturday, February 29th and March 1st at the Hope Botanical Gardens and it was a really fun experience … well it would be because of rum!
This year I didn’t experience the same rum festival vibe upon entrance, aside from getting a cool Appleton Estate bag and a fab matte rum mug. What I missed was the rum estate feeling such as the rum barrels, rum history as well as bagged sugarcane handed to you. This year it seemed to be more of a social media experience rather than a history lesson.
Because of the success of last year traffic was crazy so, I arrived later and missed out on all the wonderful rum workshops and seminars, but was told by friends that they went well, especially learning from Appleton’s master blender Joy Spence.
I must say that the performance line-up for this year was very well crafted! It was a brilliant combination of fresh acts and icons. The talented, Tessellated opened the show with his band and got the massive crowd going with an impressive performance. Miss Paradise Plum Naomi Cowan, Rising reggae star Mortimer who was memorizing and the lyrical Bugle brought the heat. They were followed by industry giants Ding Dong and the Ravers, and Protoje who, of course, came with his girl gang Lila Ike, Sevana, and Jaz Elise. Dancehall legend Spragga Benz was Saturday Night’s closing act and his performance shifted me through the time of the great era of the 90’s.
I totally enjoyed myself and looking forward to 2021 with more experiences on rum.
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