Red Stripe to join in Reggae Day celebrations

Red Stripe has signed on as a sponsor of International Reggae Day (IRD), which will be recognised on July 1.

IRD is a 24-hour global media festival celebrating the best of Jamaica and showcasing reggae culture.

Beginning at midnight tomorrow, radio stations locally will carry IRD features throughout the night, chief among them being Cutting Edge on IRIE FM.

The day's activities start on the morning programme, Smile Jamaica, on Television Jamaica. This will be followed by a tree-planting ceremony at Emancipation Park at 10 a.m. and the Red Stripe Mixer at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel gardens at 11 a.m. The day's activities will be streamed on www.ireggaeday.com, which is powered by Flow.

"The tree-planting exercise is very important to us as we want to highlight the importance of this and encourage everyone to plant a tree on International Reggae Day. Everyone should also wear their reggae colours and be proud of their culture," said Andrea Davis, founder and producer of IRD.

Red Stripe said it was pleased to partner with IRD, as the sponsorship provided another opportunity for it to foster the growth of Jamaican music.

"At Red Stripe we believe in celebrating life every day and one way to do that, separate from consuming our brands, is through feel-good reggae music," said Safia Cooper, Red Stripe's brand manager.

"We sponsor International Reggae Day because Red Stripe believes in supporting the development of Jamaican music and artistes. Red Stripe has a rich history of doing this because we put Jamaica first."