Street feast revival
Food trucks are being relied on to boost the bustle in central Palmerston North as part of the city’s Covid-19 recovery plans.
Mobile caterer Crafted and Co is reviving the Thursday Night Street Feast, amonthly event that proved popular from June 2016 to March 2017, when its original organisers bowed out.
Crafted and Co event organiser Agnieszkawitkowski said the caterer was part of the original concept and wanted to bring it back to life.
The rechristened Block Party Street Festival will be in The Square from 5pm to 8pm on the last Thursday of every month until the end of the year, beginning this Thursday.
Crafted and Co is a Palmerston Northowned business based in Cuba St, and takes its food truck throughout the region.
It had been in talks with the Palmerston North City Council to start the event before the coronavirus lockdown, and got the green-light during alert level 1. The food trucks would mostly belong to local operators, with a few from Auckland and Wellington.
Witkowski said this was a good way for people to support local business.
Winter would normally be the slow season, but due to the financial hit of coronavirus, operators could be encouraged to get their grills back up and running.
Witkowski said the trucks would be on rotate to give people a variety of new and exciting foods to choose from. There would be a DJ and seating and dining areas, and the event would be on rain or shine.
‘‘It should be a really awesome event. We are super excited. We want to have other local trucks get back into it.’’
Palmerston North head of events and partnerships Tasha Paladin said its Palmy Unleashed scheme is supporting the event to help get it off the ground.
It would assist with health measures, such as sanitation stations and security, and would also provide other support.
‘‘This was a good opportunity to help an existing project and help with the process of getting a new event off the ground.
‘‘This event fits within the Palmerston North City Council recovery plan to promote place-making, encourage events and build community spirit.’’