Jamaica’s largest food festival, PAN, celebrates its 15th year in 2019. More than a competition, PAN preserves Jamaica’s cultural street food traditions, while also uplifting the sector and promotes entrepreneurship.

Entertainment courtesy of popular gospel and reggae/dancehall acts, as well as the popular Monster Milk Kiddies Village, are just some of the offerings that patrons will enjoy at Regionals 1, 2 and the Grand Final.

“With our fixed focus on community, we plan to scale back, but definitely not eliminate the entertainment. Similar to pan chicken, music is engrained in our culture and we will have two major acts for each staging of PAN,” said Nicole Hall, assistant brand manager, CB Foods.

Regional 1, which takes place on Saturday, August 24 at Folly Oval in Portland, will feature among other acts, the Port Antonio Marching Band and dancehall artiste Govana.

PAN will see competitors go head to head in a live 60-minute cook-off. A winner and a runner-up (1st and 2nd place) are then chosen from each parish to advance to the PAN Grand Final on Sunday, October 27 at Grizzly’s Plantation Cove, St Ann.

Thirty-Five competitors from Regional 1 (five from each parish) will represent the parishes Portland, St Thomas, St Mary, Kingston & St Andrew, St Ann, St Catherine, and Trelawny.

“In honour of year 15, we are making it more about Living Better with CB Foods. All partners, without hesitation, have embraced the change and will tailor their activations to align with the Live Better movement. CB Foods is expanding this beyond the PAN series, by helping schools rework their canteen menus to ensure they are serving more nutritious food options,” explained Hall.

She further explained what is in store for patrons at this year’s staging of PAN 2019.

“We will be sharing information on how to become your own boss through our Bad Dawg entrepreneurship programme , how to acquire a PAN man loan courtesy of JNSBL and much more. Patrons can also look out for WISYNCO’s recycling competition, the annual Miracle Sauce competition and lots of giveaways and prizes from our PAN partners including National,” said Hall.

“Not many events have the legacy and tenure of PAN,” Hall noted. “CB Foods is proud of what PAN has become and this would not have been possible without our PAN partners adopting the dream for all these years. PAN continues to be a highly anticipated family food festival, now with a greater mission. We want to empower people to make better decisions for themselves, care for their neighbours and support local enterprises for a better Jamaica.”