'We're back': Taste of Edmonton is city's first major festival since pandemic began

EDMONTON -

The Taste of Edmonton is underway – the city’s first major festival in more than a year and a half.

The food festival is back at Churchill Square from July 22 to Aug. 1, featuring over 150 food and drink items from 52 food vendors.

“It is great. It helps attract more attention to the restaurants in Edmonton,” said Tiger Bui, employee at Panda Hut Express.

There are six-foot gaps between all tents and plenty of hand sanitizer available, and workers have been hired to clean tables after each use.

The event has created a two-ticket item selection to promote affordability.

“Out of respect with all of our restaurant partners, we ask them to cap everything at a five ticket max – most of them are four ticket max. All of the restaurants were absolutely on board,” said Taste of Edmonton general manager Donavon Vienneau.

“We want to showcase all these amazing restaurant partners and really give the affordability back to people,” he added.

During the nine months it took organizers to plan the event, there was plenty of uncertainty.

“The team has a smile on their face everyday. As much pain as we are going through, the uncertainty that we are going through, nobody let it ride on their face,” said Vienneau.

“We’ve dreamt about this and we’ve had sleepless nights and a lot of tears and a lot of anguish, but we’re back. Taste of Edmonton is live.”

With files from Jeremy Thompson

• Local restaurants opting out of annual Taste of Edmonton
• Despite restrictions lifting, these summer festivals are still deploying COVID-19 safety measures
• New $1M grant coming to help Edmonton festivals return