In­ter­na­tion­al artistes and chefs from across the Caribbean will give pa­trons a re­al is­land ex­pe­ri­ence when they as­sem­ble at the Viz­caya Park in Mi­ra­mar, South Flori­da, on Sat­ur­day, for the an­nu­al food and mu­sic fest.

The 3rd An­nu­al Taste of the Caribbean Is­lands event will fea­ture artistes such as Singing Melody from Ja­maica; Cau­sion from An­tigua & Bar­bu­da; Julien Be­lieve from The Ba­hamas; Na­dia Bat­son; and Latin Amer­i­can artiste Gi­an­paul & Latin Soul Band.

The leg­endary Code Red Band will al­so per­form, as well as the Lauder­hill Steel En­sem­ble, Moko Jumbies, So­ca Bounce and the Junkanoo Band. There will al­so be a trib­ute to a son of Ja­maica, Har­ry Be­la­fonte, the famed singer, ac­tor and ac­tivist, as well as a cel­e­bra­tion to mark The Ba­hamas 50th year of in­de­pen­dence.

The or­gan­is­ers say that this event “brings to­geth­er the cul­ture, lan­guage, art, mu­sic, and ex­pe­ri­ence of a peo­ple un­der one roof” and, there­fore, it is “a must-at­tend event for the folks that ap­pre­ci­ate all that makes up our Caribbean is­lands”.

Among the of­fer­ings will be live cook­ing demon­stra­tions from Vicky Co­las, ex­ec­u­tive chef and nu­tri­tion­ist at Unique Culi­nary Group; Chef Calvin Young Lal­loo from Be­lize; as well as Chefs Khalil, Patrice Har­ris-Hen­ry, and Chez-Ann Camp­bell from the School of Hos­pi­tal­i­ty and Tourism Man­age­ment at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Tech­nol­o­gy (UTech) in Ja­maica. The newest ad­di­tion will be mixol­o­gist Sha­mon Hinds-Smith, from UTech, who will de­mo Caribbean spe­cial­i­ty drinks.

Vice May­or Mi­ra­mar, Alexan­dra P Davis, who is the host of the event, stat­ed: “Taste of the Caribbean Is­lands has some­thing for every­one...face paint­ing and bal­loon art for the kids, as well as an on­site pop-up art gallery and book fair, which will in­clude book read­ings.

“The evening will close out with the pul­sat­ing rhythms of the is­lands. We are en­cour­ag­ing every­one to come out to this high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed fam­i­ly event.” (The Glean­er)