Economic Development Minister Lyndon Farnham has signed a ministerial decision allocating funds from the Tourism Development Fund to the Zest Festival, which is due to be held in April.
The JHA says the aim of the festival is to raise the profile of the hospitality industry and to ‘exhibit the incredible diversity of our trade, the skills required to work in it and the high level we offer on the Island to both residents and those travelling here’.
And it says the festival – which it intends to make an annual event – will upskill local workers and act as an attraction to visitors through the food and drink offerings.
‘The aim of the event is for it to be an annual one, growing year on year,’ the JHA says in its application for the grant. ‘The best example of this would be the Gastronomique festival in Rennes. That has grown from a small offering to one that attracts a multitude of professionals and public from all over France and further to enjoy what takes place.
‘We aim to grow the festival to include a cookbook each year, that contains recipes from all the participating venues and would provide Jersey’s first Islandwide cookbook showing the diversity of the Island’s venues. The festival will become self-funding after the first year through sponsorship and initiatives, such as the cookbook.’
As part of the festival, which runs from 3 April from a ‘Central Hub’ at Weighbridge Place, there will be a series of workshops as well as competitions such as cocktail making and fishmongery demonstrations.
A breakdown of how the grant will be spent was included within the JHA’s application. Setting up the ‘Central Hub’ as well as videoing the events to use in future promotion will cost in the region of £2,000.
And £1,000 has also been set aside to pay for the fees, travel and expenses of Myles Cunliffe, a mixologist – someone skilled at mixing cocktails and other drinks – who the JHA says ‘will raise the level of Jersey’s bartenders significantly’.
A further £600 will be spent on signage while £1,400 has been allocated to stock displays and for competitions.
Meanwhile, in the ‘Education Hub’ at Highlands College there will be workshops involving students from across the Island.
However, the JHA says that it has met the costs for these events through sponsorship from the Population Office ‘as this area focuses on upskilling students’.
