A Day in Miami Where Arepas, Rum and Live Music Became Relief Work

Inside FUUD Agency’s two-part takeover of Soho Beach House, where Venezuelan heritage set the table for earthquake relief.

The most effective fundraisers rarely announce themselves as fundraisers. On August 11, FUUD Agency staged two connected experiences at Soho Beach House Miami that read, on the surface, as a very good day: a hands-on cooking workshop in the afternoon, a sold-out beachfront concert at night. Underneath both was a single purpose, which was raising awareness and support for Venezuela.

The context is recent and severe. On the evening of June 24, 2026, two earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck the same area of Venezuela, collapsing buildings across the coastal region of La Guaira north of Caracas and in the capital itself. They are among the strongest quakes to hit the country in more than a century. The official death toll passed 1,700 within days, and at least 50,000 people remained unaccounted for.

Miami holds one of the largest Venezuelan communities outside Venezuela. For a great many people in the room on August 11, this was not a distant news story.

“Our intention was to create something that felt meaningful before it felt promotional,” said Sara Ataie Bandarian, Founder of FUUD Agency and Publisher of FUUD FLAIR Magazine. “Food, music and hospitality have an incredible ability to bring people together. We wanted to use that energy to create awareness, support communities affected by these earthquakes and give artists, brands and cultural voices a platform to participate in something larger than an event.”

The Afternoon: An Arepa Is Never Just an Arepa

The day opened small, with roughly 20 Soho House members and invited guests gathered around a workshop led by Doggi’s Arepa Bar. The format was interactive by design. Guests worked with the masa, learned the technique, and heard the history behind a dish that functions in Venezuelan households as breakfast, dinner, comfort and continuity all at once.

Santa Teresa joined the afternoon through its Santa Guarapa activation, threading a second strand of Venezuelan heritage through the room. The pairing did what good cultural programming does, which is let one tradition explain another. You cannot really talk about the arepa without talking about the table it sits on, and you cannot talk about the table without talking about what is being poured.

For a workshop capped at 20 people, the intimacy was the point. Small rooms produce actual conversation, and actual conversation is what turns a guest into a participant.

The Evening: Caracas at the Beach

By nightfall the scale changed completely. Caracas at the Beach | Music for Venezuela took over Soho Beach House Miami’s Beach Bar and sold out ahead of the date, drawing approximately 225 guests into a lineup of live performances and cultural programming.

The room assembled itself into something close to a cross section of Miami’s Venezuelan and broader Latin American communities: internationally recognized Latin singers and musicians, artists, cultural influencers, hospitality leaders, creatives and brand partners, standing on sand with the Atlantic behind the stage.

Santa Teresa’s guarapita became part of the guest experience rather than a logo on a step and repeat. The brand held visible presence during the performances while staying anchored to the music and the community the night was built around.

That distinction matters more than it sounds. Sponsorship asks an audience to notice a brand. Integration asks a brand to belong somewhere. FUUD Agency’s approach across both activations was the latter, positioning partners as participants inside the cultural narrative instead of decoration around it.

Santa Teresa made that easy. The rum has been produced at Hacienda Santa Teresa in Venezuela’s Aragua Valley since 1796 and is run today by the fifth generation of the Vollmer family, which makes it the oldest family-owned rum company in the country. It is also known internationally for Project Alcatraz, a rehabilitation program that recruited members of local gangs into work and rugby. A brand with that history does not have to perform its connection to Venezuela.

What the Day Produced

The numbers followed the experience rather than leading it. Across both activations, the partnership report recorded more than 500,000 in social reach and more than 10,000 social impressions, supported by video, photography, social posts and Instagram Stories generated by artists, organizers, partners and attendees.

Nearly all of that visibility was organic. Nobody in that room needed to be asked to post, which is generally the clearest signal that programming landed.

FUUD Agency produced and activated both experiences end to end, coordinating partners across hospitality, food and beverage, entertainment, culture and lifestyle into one continuous day rather than two separate bookings. The through line held from the masa in the afternoon to the last set at the Beach Bar.

The Larger Idea

There is a version of cause marketing that feels like homework, where guests are reminded of the mission every twenty minutes and leave having donated out of politeness. August 11 was not that. Guests experienced Venezuelan culture through food, live music, conversation, hospitality and shared traditions, and the awareness work happened inside that experience instead of on top of it.

It is a useful model for anyone building brand experiences right now. The strongest ones tend to happen where culture, community and purpose meet naturally, and where the celebration and the cause are not competing for the same attention.

Miami, for its part, has never needed convincing that a party can mean something.

About FUUD Agency

FUUD Agency is a boutique communications and experiential marketing agency based in Miami, specializing in hospitality, luxury, lifestyle, food and beverage, travel and culture. The agency develops culturally relevant brands and experiences through public relations, editorial storytelling, immersive events, influencer partnerships and strategic collaborations.

Founded by Sara Ataie Bandarian, FUUD Agency works at the intersection of hospitality, culture and storytelling, connecting brands with the communities, creators and cultural movements shaping contemporary lifestyle. The agency was named to The PR Net’s Next Gen list in 2025, and an earlier arepa workshop it produced at Soho Beach House with Doggi’s was acknowledged by Vice President Kamala Harris during a visit to Miami.

Learn more at fuudagency.com.