A rebranded Oistins Fish Festival

Removing the word ‘Fish’ from the previously known Oistins Fish Festival was an important move for marketing and international branding.

So says Chairman of the newly rebranded Oistins Festival Toni Thorne.

Thorne, who took over the Oistins Festival committee in 2019, says they changed the name because they wanted to incorporate more sponsors while explaining that the name Oistins alone is associated with fish.

“I currently live overseas and people who come to Barbados and love Barbados, one place they can identify is [Oistins],” she said.

“Even if they don’t know the name-they say the place with all the fish … you can’t call Oistins without thinking about fish … so on a basic linguistic level, it is a bit redundant but outside of that we wanted to include more persons.”

Thorne explained that the Oistins festival should not happen without being able to give out prizes or paying stakeholders or sponsors.

“Since we changed the name we have been able to bring on sponsors and some of them don’t even sell fish but I want to say that it is also not our intention to hurt people, and quite frankly I like the debate because it shows that people are interested, people are passionate and when people are interested or passionate it leaves room for improvement and for bigger stakeholders,” she said.

Thorne also hailed the budding relationship she has with Stella Lady St John whose ideas kickstarted the festival in 1977.

The Chairman also spoke of a new team of bright, young minds who she said helped her to bring the festival to where it is this year.

The festival is happening for the first time in 24 months because of the COVID-19 pandemic. (MR)