No decision yet on hosting of Arthur Guinness Day – London-Williams

Operations Commercial Manager at the St Vincent Brewery Limited Shafia London-Williams says that no final decision has yet been made in relation to the local hosting of Arthur Guinness Day (AGD).{{more}}

The comment came amidst recent announcements and a BBC report that Guinness has cancelled its Arthur Guinness Day drinks promotion in Ireland after five years, amidst criticism that Arthur’s Day encouraged excessive drinking and led to pressure on emergency services in Ireland.

However, AGD is being replaced by a new promotion dubbed ‘Guinness Amplify,’ which will support new bands.

London-Williams said that many Caribbean Islands will be celebrating the event and while no decision has been made yet in relation to local celebrations, this in no way has anything to do with the Ireland cancellation.

Meanwhile the BBC said that Guinness Ireland insists it did not give into pressure to abandon the one-day drinking celebrations, while a spokesperson from Guinness (Ireland) said the company was proud of Arthur’s Day, but it was time for a change.

Arthur Guinness Day was celebrated worldwide for five years and it is unclear if the cancellation in Ireland will be carried out worldwide.

St Vincent and the Grenadines celebrated Arthur Guinness Day last year (on September 26) with a live simulcast from Jamaica, which featured some of the Caribbean’s best artistes, including I-Octane, Tarrus Riley, Bunji Garlin and Fay-Ann Lyons, Aidonia and Busy Signal.

Locally the simulcast was held at the Solidarity Inc car park on Bay Street.

Arthur Guinness Day is a global event with musical performances in 55 countries, including Ireland, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, France, Spain, Italy, Australia, as well as the Caribbean.

The day has been celebrated since 2009 to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the lease at the St James’ Gate Brewery in Dublin, Ireland.