Jamaica fest is coming up this weekend in
Silver Spring happening at one Veterans Plaza.
Jamaica's rich cultural heritage will be on full display.
It's happening this Sunday going from noon to 9 p.m. Of course,
the event will feature live music, food, plenty of dancing and lots of art as well.
We are joined by Emil Wade who is the
Community Relations Officer of the Embassy of Jamaica.
Good to have you back. Thank you. It's always a fun party at Jamaica Fest, isn't it?
It always this year promises to be no different. What is?
So this is your second year doing Jamaica fest, right? Is that correct? Ok.
What is making this bigger and better?
Well, for this staging, we're moving to a bigger venue.
We have a lot more musical acts. We have Roy Ran, which is our headliner.
He is a Jamaican two time festival song winner.
And the festival song is basically a competition that we do
our own independence where Jamaicans create songs to celebrate our nation
and he will be here, live and live.
Awesome. That's exciting.
And in addition to cultural music, you've got food,
tell us about how all of the performers and the food and everything is really just
really wanting to put cultural display out there, right?
So this is an event that we're doing to end the summer.
And it's also a part of our independent celebrations.
So Jamaica celebrated Independence on August 6 this year.
And we just want to bring everyone to celebrate while showing the culture,
the music, the food,
the art. So we'll have a vendor village, we'll have a culinary pavilion.
Um in addition to a lot of activities that kind of relate to Jamaica.
So we have like a mini Olympics.
So you saying both won't be there, unfortunately,
but we will be having it. I know I see your rep in your Jamaica jersey.
So proud some incredible athletes coming out of your country for sure.
But I love to like if people can't get to Jamaica, right?
This is such a great way like how you said in summer too, I mean,
what better way than to embrace the culture,
but it's also just bringing the community together, right?
So community engagement is a big part of it.
Um We want not just Jamaicans to be able to enjoy Jamaica,
but people who are here who haven't had a chance the event is free.
Um So it's a family oriented event.
You can bring the kids, everyone can come out, it starts at
12 p.m. and goes until 9 p.m. So that's a lot of time to come and enjoy Jamaica
and hopefully this will convert people to go
and actually visit Jamaica outside of the festival,
beautiful country.
I was gonna say that how important is this that it helps to promote kind of
the culture and then the tourism
going to Jamaica, right? So tourism is Jamaica's breadwinner.
So anything we can do to push around Jamaica, we look forward to doing that.
Um Our partners in this event,
those resorts, they have, you know,
a big resort chain running through the Caribbean, especially in Jamaica.
The Jamaica tourist board would also be there too
to help push around Jamaica.
And we have all the sponsors, you know, sharing our food sides,
we have emb sales with their great brands,
sharing um some of the offerings that they have.
I love seeing the clear blue water.
I mean, you probably just can't get enough of that, right?
I can't,
we have a little something. Did you bring this a meal?
Yes.
Oh my gosh,
the bag.
You either know me real well or, but I know this is just a Jamaican thing, right?
A hot sauce. That's
amazing.
And it's gonna be cold soon. So why not warm up with some hot
sauce
and
some
flags? Of course, you got to enjoy that. I love this.
Thank you so much. Hey, Emil, what are you most excited about
for the
best?
I am excited about
the music and the theme is to link up.
So it's just basically everybody coming together.
So I'm looking forward to togetherness the most awesome
and where can people go and find this?
Right? So you can search on event, right? And you will see the event.
There's also a raffle that we have going on a raffle
where you can win a ticket to actually go to Jamaica.
So visit
event, right?
You can register, you can purchase as many raffle tickets as you want.
Um proceeds from this event are going to a good cause. So I hope to see you there.
I hope to see everybody so glad it's back. It's gonna be so much fun.
Thank you so much, Jamaica fest is happening this Sunday, September 17th, uh,
from 12 to 9 p.m. at Veterans Plaza in Silver Spring.