Food fest replacement coming to Welland
After a year without a food festival in downtown Welland, a new event will take place this fall to replace it.
Welland Downtown Business Improvement Area member Lucas Spinosa was at Tuesday’s city council meeting telling councillors about plans for Feast Street Niagara scheduled for Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 on East Main and Cross Streets.
Niagara Food Festival was disbanded last year after incurring financial loses primarily due to inclement weather.
Although several food vendors were added to last year’s Niagara Regional Exhibition, and weekly supper markets were held on Merritt Island, Spinosa said the annual fall event was missed in the community.
“This is something we’re trying to do to fill that void.”
Following his presentation, councillors voted to provide $7,115 in funding to help the BIA accomplish that goal. Spinosa said the BIA’s new event will be different and “more community-minded” than the festival it’s replacing. He said the BIA has learned from the previous food festival, to develop a better event in its place.
“I’ve been working store front in Welland since I was eight years old, and I talk to people every single day,” Spinosa said.
He said people have told him the previous food festival was too expensive among other complaints.
“They think there was not enough to do after hours, and when it gets late their kids have to go home. They can’t stay for the music because it gets too rowdy. There are a lot of changes that we’ve been making to this to make improvements, while also paying homage to the things that were great about it.”
For instance, he said the new event will ensure that visitors can enjoy inexpensive samples at $3 each, that the event is accessible to everyone, and that there will be a wide selection of menu items.
“We’re also the first food festival to really take in all dietary restrictions, such as vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free — and not just with a couple salads and vinaigrette dressing,” he said. “We’re going to have multiple different booths and vendors for people with all those different restrictions.”
The event will include attractions for children, too, with arcade games and activities provided by Niagara Falls Fun Zone.
“We have reasonable vendor fees,” he added. “They’re between $400 to $600 per vendor depending on how many we cap off at for both days.”
In comparison, he said vendor fees for other events were more than $1,200.
“This is definitely not the food festival, this is something different. And hopefully, we’re going to do something even greater with it,” he said.
The BIA is taking steps to avoid the same fate as the previous food festival.
“I have to ask this question, because in the past Mother Nature hasn’t co-operated, and I know there’s a cost that comes with these events,” said Ward 4 Coun. Pat Chiocchio. “Is there a Plan B?”
Spinosa said overall event expenses will be kept as low as possible, making it more resilient to inclement weather.
“It doesn’t cost a lot of money to make this type of event work,” he said. “We’ve taken a different approach and looked for active partnerships instead of sponsorship opportunities as the only resource. As a result, instead of this event costing us $150,000, we can do it for way less than a quarter of that,” he said.
After researching weather statistics, he said the event has been scheduled a few weeks later than the Niagara Food Festival was running to decrease the chance of being affected by rainy weather.