Saskatoon is hosting a new food and wine festival at River Landing this week with over two dozen local vendors flooding the streets downtown.
Vendors at YXE Street Eats opened for business at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday and will stick around for the rest of the week.
“We are a culinary capital in Canada,” said Maygen Kardash, director of media and marketing for the event. “We have such a diverse mix of ethnic cuisines and highlighting that in a food festival, it really makes a part of the summer.”
Four individuals in the city created the festival to fill the void left by Taste of Saskatchewan after they were forced to cancel their summer event.
Scott Ford, executive director for the SaskTel Centre, told Global News in a previous interview that Taste of Saskatchewan had to cancel this season due to inflationary costs, staffing and taxes.
“Saskatoon is just excited to fill that niche,” Kardash said.
Peter Song with 82 Bakeshop said their business doesn’t see a lot of traffic out in the Willowgrove neighbourhood.
“We wanted to get exposure to more people in Saskatoon,” Song said. “People who avoid trying desserts because they are overly sweet will love our desserts.”
82 Bakeshop serves cookies, macarons, cheesecakes and other desserts.
“We love interacting with customers and want to see more people,” Song said.
The new street festival will run for the next five days from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. except on Sunday, when vendors will wrap up a few hours earlier at 8:00 p.m.
Wine and other drinks will be served by Saskatoon distilleries, breweries, and mixologists after 4:30 p.m. during the weekdays and all day on Saturday and Sunday.
A market and other entertainment will be available throughout the week including Saskatoon’s Got Talent. Residents can watch the auditions at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday or watch the finals from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday.
The YXE Street Eats website stated other entertainment scatter throughout the week of the festival, but a schedule is not available yet online.
“Our hope is to make this an annual festival. Just in the first hour, people are excited about it,” Kardash said.
Updates can be found on the YXE Street Eats website throughout the week.
Festival admission is free.
Comments