BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) – Organizers for this year’s Taste of Buffalo announced a “virtual version” of this year’s summer festival will take place on July 11 and 12 using their Facebook and Instagram accounts.
The modification of the this year’s festival was due to the coronavirus pandemic that has caused several other summer events to be postponed or outright canceled.
The Taste of Buffalo usually sees dozens of area vendors line up along Delaware Avenue and Niagara Square in the City of Buffalo for the two-day food festival. This year, they will use a “Taste Takeout” initiative. Organizers said more than half of the restaurants, food trucks, and wineries that would have appeared in the original event will now prepare special food and beverage deals at their restaurants that weekend and continue the following week while supplies last.
Organizers said that because city officials and multiple volunteers are tasked with preparing for the event, they were unable to properly prepare due to the pandemic. Even as reopening talks begin, there would not have been enough time to pull off the event properly.
"In Western New York and around the world, the restaurant industry has been devastated by our new reality as a result of COVID-19,” Erin Collins, 2020 Taste of Buffalo Chair, said. “We can't be together in person, so our board of directors took a leap of faith and reinvented our festival in a virtual format to support the restaurants we all love so much. Taste of Buffalo at Home would not be possible without generous support from Tops Friendly Markets, and we are so grateful to have a partner that shares our love for food and community. We hope you'll join us this July – at home – as we come together to eat, drink and Taste!"
The festival guide will be released next month.