The Heart Foundation of Jamaica’s annual wine and food festival — Simply Red- will this year move to the well-manicured lawns of Jamaica House. The move is in an effort to accommodate the increased attendance from patrons they predict will turn up based on the overwhelming response they have received from sponsors and patrons thus far. The 23-year-old festival is slated to take place at the new venue on September 28.

Over the years, the festival’s new home has been the LIME Golf Academy in New Kingston, but according to the foundation’s Fund Development and Communications Manager Yasmin Salmon Russell, the festival has outgrown that venue. “Based on the early positive indications from our repeat sponsors, new sponsors and celebrity caterers, we decided that the venue was too small to host our $10M drive,” shared Salmon Russell. “The support for this year’s event is overwhelming as persons are extremely excited about the exotic culinary delights, the celebration of Jamaican cuisine in the context of our Jamaica 50 celebrations, and most importantly, being a part of an initiative designed to decrease the incidence of deaths due to heart-related diseases,” she further stated.

This year’s event entitled Simply Red, themed “Out of Many… One Heart,” is aimed at raising funds in order to increase the ability of the foundation to fight heart-related diseases- the number one cause of death in Jamaica; to help maintain the foundation’s in-house clinic services, mobile outreach programme, and its cardio-pulmonary resuscitation training programme. The four-hour affair will feature three celebrity international chefs, 60 display booths, show cooking presented on two main stages, a fine assortment of wines and an evening of amazing culinary offerings where guests will be able to indulge in a delectable array of menu offerings prepared by ethnic chefs.