MI­A­MI–The fifth an­nu­al Mi­a­mi Rum Re­nais­sance Fes­ti­val–the largest gath­er­ing of rum ex­perts, pro­fes­sion­als and en­thu­si­asts in the world–will span Mon­day, April 15 to Sun­day, April 21 at the Dou­ble­tree by Hilton Mi­a­mi Air­port Con­ven­tion Cen­ter.

Last year, more than 8,000 rum en­thu­si­asts at­tend­ed the fes­ti­val with 20,000 square feet of ex­hib­it space. The new space spans 40,000 square feet, twice the size of last year's event. Fes­ti­val or­gan­is­ers are prepar­ing for 15,000 at­ten­dees. In ad­di­tion to a week-long se­ries of VIP par­ties, tast­ing ses­sions and celebri­ty sem­i­nars, the rum fes­ti­val brings to­geth­er mem­bers of the es­teemed In­ter­na­tion­al Rum Ex­pert Pan­el (RumX­Ps) for their an­nu­al tast­ing com­pe­ti­tion.

Two full days of Grand Tast­ing events for the pub­lic will take place on April 20 and 21. More than 240 spir­its from the Caribbean and be­yond will be avail­able for sam­pling, along with a se­lec­tion of is­land-style cui­sine. New this year is a half-day ex­hib­it ses­sion ex­clu­sive­ly for the bev­er­age trade on April 19. Liquor store buy­ers, food and bev­er­age man­agers, bar­tenders and oth­er spir­its trade pro­fes­sion­als will be in­vit­ed to at­tend.

The Mi­a­mi Rum Re­nais­sance Fes­ti­val at­tracts cane spir­it prod­ucts and brands from all over the globe. Com­pa­nies large and small will be on hand to present their rums to a glob­al gath­er­ing of ex­perts, re­porters, crit­ics and con­sumers. South Flori­da is re­gard­ed as the num­ber one rum mar­ket in the world, with a high per­cent­age of rum en­thu­si­asts, liquor stores, bars and restau­rants of­fer­ing both pop­u­lar and top-shelf lux­u­ry rum prod­ucts to con­sumers.

Ac­cord­ing to event man­ag­er Robin Burr, the Mi­a­mi Rum Fest has dou­bled in size each year, a tes­ta­ment to the fact that con­sumer in­ter­est in sug­ar cane spir­its is grow­ing faster than any oth­er cat­e­go­ry of liquor. "We're proud to say that our pre­dic­tion of rum's resur­gence in pop­u­lar­i­ty was on the mon­ey," said Robert A Burr, fes­ti­val or­gan­is­er and pub­lish­er of Rob's Rum Guide.

"An in­cred­i­ble range of fine rums, from ca­su­al and fun mix­ers to lux­u­ri­ous top-shelf sip­ping rums will be on dis­play."