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Date: 9/6/2022
NORTHAMPTON – “Taste of Northampton,” a staple event from almost two decades ago, is returning to the city on Sep. 10.
In an interview with Reminder Publishing, Alan Wolf, the chief of staff for the mayor, said the “taste” event was a beloved fixture of Northampton for the better part of the 90s and a brief period in the early aughts.
“This was a big event for downtown,” said Wolf, adding that the event used to occur on Armory Street across three to four days. After a while, other communities like Amherst began conducting their own iteration until the event waned into obscurity.
“In the context of ideas of Northampton downtown development, many people have expressed nostalgia for that event,” said Wolf.
Because of this, the mayor’s office worked in collaboration with Downtown Northampton Association to recreate an event that brought a myriad of people to the city’s center almost two decades ago. With restaurants and businesses still recovering from the coronavirus pandemic, Wolf said the city used a grant to assist with financials.
“Recognizing that asking all of these businesses and restaurants to step up and do what was a big volunteer effort on their part in this moment of recovery might be too much, we decided to seek a grant and pay for as much of the costs as possible,” said Wolf.
The $50,000 grant provided by the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council will help pay for tents, equipment, bathrooms, music and stage amenities. The plan is to block off Main Street from Old South Street to the King Street-Pleasant Street intersection from noon to 7 p.m. on Sep. 10 for the event.
During a meeting on Aug. 18, the City Council temporarily suspended a city ordinance that normally prevents food trucks from the downtown area in order to allow brick-and-mortar restaurants to use their trucks for the event.
“We’re really excited to be having the Taste of Northampton again,” said Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra, during the Aug. 18 City Council meeting. “I thank the council so much for supporting it and getting the word out, and also for supporting this order which helps us to support our brick-and-mortar restaurants that have mobile trucks.”
Participating vendors for the event include Artifact Cider Project, Eastside Grill, Local Burger, Mama Iguana’s, India House and many more. A full lineup along with who is performing music can be found on the Northampton.live website: https://northampton.live/taste-of-northampton. As of press time, 22 vendors are listed on the site. The site will be updated as it gets closer to the date.