Bacardi B-Live mixes cocktails with hot stuff

DJ Jazzy Jeff (Credit: Getty Images)

Megan Finnerty
Metromix

Bacardi wants you to start thinking about its rums the way you think about your favorite bands or DJs.

This is to say, Bacardi wants you to feel something about its liquors, wants you to have strong opinions, allegiances.

To that extent, the company is taking over Myst Saturday for its Bacardi B-Live party with hip-hop DJ and Fresh Prince best friend DJ Jazzy Jeff, and two electronica DJs.

Eschewing the massive, 10,000-person outdoor promotions of previous summers, Bacardi is taking the party inside for a nationwide tour with a series of high-profile DJs, singers and emcees, and hoping for a crowd of about 1,200.

To get into the free party, those 21 and older have to register at bacardi.com/blive.

At the door, guests will receive tokens redeemable for American Apparel screen-printed T-shirts, posters, buttons and other merchandise, just like at a concert. Only you don't have to spend your own money.

“We want people to really engage with the brand,” said Billy Melnyk, experiential marketing manager for Bacardi. “Guests can make their own custom T-shirts and get an original drink made just for them according to their tastes, what they like at the Bespoke Bar. It looks like a Whole Foods fruit stand right there where you get your drink.”

The thinking is, if you get to pick your own T-shirt color, size and graphic print, including ones that do not have anything to do with liquor, and if you get to pick your own poster from 10 designs created by nationally known graphic designers, and you snap up a little USB stick that looks like a cassette tape, but is actually filled with free music you can download, then you might feel a little more emotionally invested in your next mojito purchase.

Phoenix is one of more than 15 cities on the tour that also includes buzz-worthy artists such as Santigold, Z-Trip, Q-Tip and Ghostland Observatory. But those people's schedules didn't jive with the Valley's tour date. So here, guests will dance to intense disco-pop electronica from Brooklyn-based DJ Drop the Lime, New York-based house DJ Steve Porter and DJ Jazzy Jeff, who's still mixing hip-hop along with a little bit of everything else. Proceeds will benefit the VH1 Save the Music Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to restoring America's music programs in schools across the nation.