Tobago Blue Food Festival on Oct 23-24

Tobago's culinary creativity will be tested and tasted at the 24th annual Blue Food Festival, which gets under way from October 23-24.

The island's premier food festival, usually a grand affair at Bloody Bay Recreation Ground, has been scaled down for the second consecutive year owing to the covid19 pandemic.

Although the event has been adjusted to comply with covid19 health regulations, the public can expect keen cuisine competition from the villages of L'Anse Fourmi, Bloody Bay and Parlatuvier.

They will be competing on October 23 in five categories: dasheen wine, dasheen black cake, dasheen pastry, dasheen drink and dasheen ice cream.

This event is not open to the public.

There will also be an online competition on the same day inviting the public to submit videos or images of their blue food dishes.

On October 24, there will be a blue food curbside pick-up where community cooks will prepare meals and other delights for public consumption. The menus will be available on the Tobago Festivals Commission Ltd social media pages so interested people can place their orders.

A documentary on the history of the festival will première online on October 24.

There will be a few events leading up to the food festival.

Tobago Festivals Commission is hosting an online extempo competition and interested singers are asked to submit entries by October 16 in MP4 format to tobagofestivals@gmail.com.

Judging will be based on lyrics (40 marks), relation to theme (20 marks), delivery (20 marks) and presentation (20 marks).

There will also be over $12,000 in cash prizes for the Blue Day competition. This competition is open to individuals and groups of five or less, to showcase "blue" in style and creativity through clothing, decor, dance or any other artistic way. Entries must be submitted via email to tobagofestivals@gmail.com by October 20. Format can be either video or image.