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A Taste of Saskatchewan is returning for a milestone year.
The food festival announced it will come back for a 25th year on Thursday. The annual event at Kiwanis Memorial Park will run from July 14- 19, 2020.
“We are excited to announce the continuation of A Taste of Saskatchewan in Kiwanis Memorial Park for its 25th anniversary this summer,” Will Lofdahl, CEO for SaskTel Centre, said in a media release.
“We are exceptionally proud of the popularity of the festival, and we look forward to working with our restaurant, entertainment and corporate partners to build on a successful, uniquely Saskatoon event experience.”
Returning in 2020 was previously in doubt.
Councillor Zach Jeffries brought up the conversation to city council in Novermber when he noticed the 2020 budget did not include funding for the event as SaskTel Centre, the organization helming A Taste of Saskatchewan, wanted to give the park a year to regenerate plant life and also give a break to restaurant owners that lost money.
That was the case for Alex Istifo, co-owner of Sardinia Family Restaurant. He is considering not taking part in this year’s festival after huge losses last year.
“We’ll see what SaskTel Centre is going to offer to the restaurants and what the deal is,” Istifo said. “We lost lots of money last year and it was a big disappointment.”
If Istifo decided not to take part in the festival it would be only the third time in the 25 years.
“It is really not an event where you make lots of money. I have all the equipment still in the garage, so I’ll give it a second thought,” Istifo said of his commitment to this year’s festival.
Istifo is critical of the $850 SaskTel Centre charges for booths, on top of taking a 20 per cent cut of all profits. Adding GST and PST means 31 per cent comes off the margin of every sold item at the festival.
Seeing the festival move its focus away from local restaurants and towards chain restaurants like Red Lobster and Booster Juice is also something Istifo would like to change in the future.
“They are not Taste of Saskatchewan, are they?”