NYC’s Jamaican Jerk Festival

 

Grace’s Jamaican Jerk Festival gets bigger and bigger every year. One of the few festivals dedicated to Jamaican food and entertainment with authenticity in the U.S., the festival travels to major cities across the U.S. but New York is the cornerstone event in its 8th year and going strong. Every year the Jamaican Jerk festival gets bigger and better.

 

 

The festival was well organized, utilizing the massive space at Roy Wilkins Park in Queens, NY effectively. There was no shortage of food options. As expected, Jerk chicken was the spotlight for most vendors, there so many different ways to make jerk chicken and everyone has their own spice blend and style of cooking that no jerk chicken tastes the same. The festival was filled with a light smokiness that got the taste buds yearning for food as soon as you stepped through the gate. There were also food vendors with African and Latino style cuisine to add to the traditional dishes patrons expected like oxtails, curry goat, rice & peas, roast corn, fried fish, and a few vegetarian options. It was hard to choose, the lines were still pretty decent, so you didn’t have to wait too long for food.   

 

The Jamaican Jerk Festival had a full kids zone with bouncy houses and fun activities for the little ones. Patrons were able to comfortably bring their blankets and/chairs to relax and enjoy the vibes. Cooking demos by well-known celebrity chefs like Chef Simpson and nutrition and fitness expert Kamila McDonald. Things got heated with a cooking competition and patty eating contest! And of course, the marketplace was filled with a number of vendors selling Caribbean inspired merchandise.

Hosted by Ragga Shanti, the Grace’s Jamaican Jerk Festival is uniquely known for its entertainment a number of reggae and dancehall artists like New Kingston, Jahmiel, L.U.S.T.,  Hood Celebrityy and Elephant Man. While adding a little Afrobeats flavor with Nigerian artist Patoran King.

The brothers of New Kingston are always a treat, they’ve been performing in NYC for years and are no strangers to working the crowd with their music. The ratings for Jahmiel as he gave a solid performance and got some forwards with the crowd songs like “Gain the World”.

 

Although L.U.S.T. was short a member (Tony Curtis),  the other three members Lukie D, Singing Melody, and Thriller U held it down and brought some nostalgia with their cover classics as a group and individuals. Their vocal ability is uncanny and the ladies in the crowd ate it right up.

Patoran King came ready for a full show! It was his first time performing in NYC and while many in the crowd weren’t familiar with him, he gave a great performance and you could tell the audience appreciated his showmanship and were able to put a face to his most popular song “My Woman.”

 

The rain almost got the best of the crowd as Hood Celebrityy hit the stage, she gave a quick performance “Bubble” her smash hit “Walking Trophy” and introduced a new song before leaving the crowd.

 

The downpour of rain did not stop the Energy God, Elephant man as we went right into energy mode with a slew of hit like “Jamaica”, “Ova de Wall”, “Pon de River”, “Gully Creeper” and more. He climbed up on speaker boxes ran in the crowd and by the end had people throwing away their umbrellas to dance in the rain.

Despite the rain, it was a good time for family, fun and of course food!