MONTEGO BAY, St James – With the Montego Bay jerk festival a little over a month away, promoters are marketing the event as one well suited for wholesome family fun.

In short, it is all about the kids.

“We are trying to make it a better family-oriented event,” said Kahlil Shirley, the marketing manager with the Pro-motion and Events group. He was speaking, Wednesday, at a press conference to launch the festival.

According to Shirley, their intent is to breathe new life into the resort city’s entertainment offerings that are suitable for children.

“Because of us reaching out to kids, we wanted to have more of an upliftment-type thing,” he added, noting that they will offer good, conscious music and a variety of attractions for the youngsters. These attractions include the popular bounce-about and donkey rides. Adults are also free to take advantage of such offerings.

Of course, no jerk festival worth its salt could be staged without offering a wide variety of finger-licking jerk food from which patrons can choose to delight their taste buds. Shirley has promised to deliver on this, adding that those offerings could well rival those of the popular Portland jerk festival.

Every effort would be made to make the festival a uniquely Montego Bay event.

“It is a Montego Bay event and we want to keep it that way,” he said.

This year’s festival is estimated to cost in excess of $700,000, roughly $200,000 more than it cost organisers in 2003 when it was first staged.

At that time, their target audience was primarily adults and the event attracted over 2,000 people, including tourists. The hope is that this year’s festival, which is to be held at the city’s Meeting Place (formerly the Dragon Gym), will top its 2003 performance as it caters to children and the family as a whole. Organisers are also seeking to forge partnerships with hotels, as they did in 2003, to once again attract the island’s visitors.

Adults attending the festival will pay $300 while children will pay $150. Those under two-years-old will enter free.

Proceeds from the event will go to the LUAJ Tennyson Palmer Basic School in St James, which opened its doors in 1985. There are currently 238 students and seven teachers at the institution, which is in need of infrastructure development.