For most of the blog's existence, we’ve been more Eat.Eat.Lagos than Eat.Drink.Lagos.  

This year, we made a concerted effort to fix that a bit. We got the Drink Lagos sub-blog up this year and to take it to another level, we’re adding a drink stage to the festival. You can call it the “Drinks Theatre” and we’ve partnered with a few brands in the Diageo portfolio to bring a proper Drink Lagos experience to #EatDrinkFestival. 

There will be quite a few things  going on in the Drinks Theatre so let us break it down for you.

Guinness Rich Room & Bold Room Lite

We got invited to the Guinness Flavor Room activation a couple weeks. Beyond Rio Ferdinand (an absolute legend) and a surprise Burna Boy appearance, we were absolutely blown away by the activation itself. Activations tend to border on the meh side of things, but this one was so good. We can’t reveal too much detail without spoiling it, but we’ve convinced the Guinness team to recreate it at #EatDrinkFestival. You can expect some specialty Guinness cocktails, henna and art. That’s all we can say for now…lol. 

Panels!

In the actual “theatre”, there’ll be a couple of interesting sessions for guests who swing by. Diageo is in the house so expect complimentary cocktails from the vodka and whiskey bars that are powered by Smirnoff and Johnnie Walker. There are limited seating so it’s "first come, first serve” so you better get in there early if you’re interested. 

Art of the Cocktails - Day 1 (Dec. 26) 4 - 5 pm

Hosted by Lala and the Eko Cocktail Club, this will be an intimate discussion on the versatility of gin. Lala will be demo-ing some of her original recipes for you to recreate at home. You’ll learn about crafting more expressive cocktails that go beyond the basic gin and tonic or vodka and orange juice. 

Explaining the Labels - Day 2 (Dec. 27) 4 - 5 pm

If you’ve ever wanted to understand the difference between the Johnnie Walker labels, this is the session for you. The Johnnie Walker brand ambassador, Caesario deMedeiros, and Bariety Club will be hosting a whiskey tasting session. This one should be plenty fun and the content might make for a good conversation starter some day. 

Bar Battle - Day 1 & 2 (Dec. 26 & 27) 6 - 7 pm

The final event is an amateur Bar Battle and there’ll be a N100k cash prize. To enter, submit 2 interesting original drink recipes, i.e. cocktails you invented at home using this form. The team will select 4 finalists and they’ll come “battle” it out at the festival.