Ajabu Cocktail & Spirits Festival will take place again in Cape Town bringing some of the world’s brightest bar and drinks talent together for eight days of bar takeovers, collaborations, education and celebration from 14–22 November.
Founded by Ghanaian bartender Colin Asare-Appiah (pictured left) and longtime collaborator Mark Talbot Holmes (founder of U’Luvka Vodka), the bi-annual show takes its name from the Swahili word for ‘miraculous’.
Throughout the week of activations Cape Town’s bars will become meeting points for local and international talent, with visiting bartenders collaborating with local teams to exchange techniques, ideas, ingredients and stories.
CLASS' sister title Drinks International will be the show’s media partner, while confirmed participants include Johannesburg favourites Sin + Tax, Obscura and Smoking Kills, and an international line-up that is set to include Mama Koko’s (Baltimore), Kees (New York), Bisou Bisou (Montréal), Bon Vivants (Bahamas), Hero (Nairobi), Front/Back and No.19 (Accra), La Mamounia and Royal Mansour (Marrakech) and Satan’s Whiskers, Cato and Churchill Bar (London).
The festival, which is expected to attract more than 2,000 visitors, will celebrate the Pornstar Martini this year – a creation of Asare-Appiah’s former LAB colleague and friend Douglas Ankara (also of Ghanaian heritage) – with participating bars offering their interpretations of the cocktail half price.