Jerk, Roots, and Yam Festival

Dating back to the island's Maroon warriors in the seventeenth century, Jamaica's most distinctive cooking style, jerk, is a method of seasoning meats (usually chicken or pork) with a mixture of spices and hot peppers, then grilling them over a wood fire and under a cover of wooden strips. The Jerk, Roots, and Yam festival offers "jerking" demonstrations, a showcase of sauces and spices, and everything you wanted to know about yams but didn't know who to ask! Enhancing the savory dishes will be equally well-seasoned performances from reggae veterans Leroy Sibbles (founder of the Heptones), Frankie Paul (a.k.a. Jamaica's Stevie Wonder), and gospel/reggae queen Judy Mowatt, with legendary Calypsonian the Mighty Sparrow adding a pinch of Trinidadian flavor to the delectable mix.