VP Records Partners With Grace Foods for Annual Celebration of Jamaican Culture

Celebrating almost a decade, the Ninth Annual Grace Jamaican Jerk Festival returns to Roy Wilkins Park in Queens, NY for another day of food, fun, and entertainment on Sunday, July 21, 2019. This year, attendees can expect a great musical treat from VP Records with international recording artists Bunji Garlin, Capleton, Christopher Martin, Fay Ann Lyons, Naomi Cowan and Shenseea all slated to perform. The Festival, which has grown over the years and is expected to attract over 20,000 patrons this year, highlights the authentic Jamaican Jerk flavor.

The Culinary Tent features a variety of chefs providing culinary demonstrations, hosted by Chef Irie and leading the group with his humorous style, complemented by a number of celebrity chefs with their exciting cooking demos and cook-offs. This year features Chef Max, Chef Ji Cha, Chef Rudy, Chef Troy, Chef Darlene B, Chef Sam Davis, and Chef Cybille St Aude all delivering culinary flavors and lots of tasty samples.

Chef Ji Cha, an award-winning chef and former contestant of Chef Gordon Ramsey's Hell's Kitchen was the winner of last year's Celebrity Cook off challenge. Today, she works for herself at ChefJi LLC in the tri-state area as a consulting chef, doing demos for companies like Panasonic. Chef Ji is looking to defend her title at this year's Jerk Festival.

"The Grace Jamaican Jerk Festival has showcased the best in jerk cuisine, music and fun year after year, and we're excited to be partnering with the organizers in this our 40th anniversary year to present what promises to be another stellar featuring great food and showcasing some of our top artists", said Richard Lue, Director of Business Development at VP Records. "The acts this year represent a cross section of our talent pool from the reggae, dancehall and soca genres. We encourage patrons to get their tickets early and not to miss out on what promises to be a great musical feast."

For 40 years, VP Records has been at the heart of the global expansion of reggae, dancehall and soca music. Its cofounders, Vincent and Patricia Chin, migrated to the U.S. after starting a successful business of collecting used records from jukeboxes and reselling them at their record store, Randy's, in Kingston, Jamaica. After setting up shop in Queens, their record store, VP Records, evolved into a record label, which now has a global footprint.

VP Records has worked with some of reggae's biggest acts including Buju Banton, Sean Paul, Beenie Man, Freddie McGregor, Dennis Brown, Barrington Levy, and Beres Hammond to name a few. Their record shop, which is on Jamaica Avenue, is one of the oldest continuously operated record stores in the Northeast.

Tickets are on sale now at www.jerkfestivalny.com and at authorized retail outlets in the New York tri-state area.

For more information on VP Records, log onto www.vprecords.com.

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