The organisers of the Portland Jerk Festival are raising the entertainment bar at this year’s event.

The country’s premier food festival which is set for the Folly Estate in Port Antonio, boasts an impressive musical line-up, featuring some of the country’s to artistes spread out over four specific musical genres of local music.

The musical entertainment will be spread throughout the day starting with gospel between 12:00 noon -1:00 pm. This will be followed by vintage Jamaican reggae music from 3:00-5:00 pm; soca from 6:00-7:30 pm and climaxing with a dancehall line-up which includes Etana, Beenie Man, Sizzla, Konshens, Terry Linen and Richie Loop.

The entertainment will be complemented by drumming by the Charlestown Maroons, as well as cultural presentations by The Manchonei Cultural group.

Over the years the Portland Jerk Festival has been all about meat. Along with the regular jerk pork, fish, chicken, lobster, mutton, and sheep, there will be deer jerk this year more than former years according to event co-ordinator Colin Bell.

Speaking to Observer entertainment Bell said “there will be a lot of deer this year than the other years” he said. Deer is popular in the Mt Pleasant area of the parish after they escaped from Sommerset Falls after hurricane Gilbert and they feed on the farmer’s carrots. They are caught from time to time and fetch prices of up to $500 per pound.

“We expect to have some forty vendors with a variety of jerk and other things and the weather seems set to be good,” Bell added.