Update: No Hennessy Artistry Event Scheduled for This Year, Brand Manager Confirms Focus on Local Arts and Entertainment

There will be no Hennessy Artistry this year.

Senior brand manager at Bryden Stokes Ltd, the distributor of Hennessy in Barbados, Rasheed Wharton confirmed that the showcase which would normally be held in December would not be staged but there were plans to invest in the arts and entertainment.

“We’ve taken a hard decision this year to not do Hennessy Artistry. Hennessy is a community spirit and we can’t just do one big show and do a couple of other small events. We felt we should do the reverse – do a lot more smaller events and a couple of big shows.

“We decided to be a part of more locally relevant platforms and take part in local events a bit more than we did in the past,” he said.

When asked if the event would eventually return, Wharton said: “One of Hennessy’s major platforms is music. We have a collaboration with Nas and Alicia Keys for the premium part of the portfolio, so we will continue to play a part in music and the culture but not through Hennessy Artistry for this year.

“I can’t put a date to when it will return but, definitely, we will have some form of it in the future; maybe not the form that we know it as, but it will be back.”

Wharton spoke to the MIDWEEK NATION on Monday at Copacabana, Bay Street, The City, during the media launch of Twisted Entertainment’s Bim Tipsy, of which Bryden’s is an event sponsor.

Wharton suggested that their redirection paid off, especially during the Crop Over Festival.

“ Hennessy Artistry had around 10 000 to 16 000 people on one given night. We got a wider reach to more people. The impressions for Crop Over alone . . . we partnered with around 40 parties – that’s at least 2 500 to 5 000 and then Tipsy had around 15 000 on its own.

“We’ve already exceeded what we would have done for Artistry.”

Wharton said the track record of Twisted Entertainment, the most recent producer of Hennessy Artistry 2023, was one of the many reasons they decided to support its event. Last year’s event featured Ne-Yo, Beres Hammond and Koffee, who performed at

Kensington Oval.

“We have been in a long-standing partnership, we felt it fit to support [Twisted] in this venture, and being that [Twisted] was the last promoter that produced Artistry,

they know the blueprint,” he said.

During the media briefing representatives of Stansfeld Scott, Hanschell Inniss and Twisted also spoke about the return of Bim Tispy.