Portland’s Largest Food Festival, Feast, Is Permanently Canceled

Feast, Portland’s largest food festival with chefs from all over the world, has called itself off after a decade of raucous gastronomic bacchanalia and jaw-dropping meals. portland monthly reported first. According to co-founder Mike Serrin, the pandemic and the continued precarious stability of the restaurant industry contributed to his decision to pull out.

Feast is a food festival that began in 2012 and was born out of growing interest in the world of restaurants and Portland itself. Feast’s various co-cooking events, parties, dinners, and talks attracted guests who paid hundreds of dollars to attend. In its heyday, tickets sold out in hours, if not minutes. The festival hosts Food Network personalities like Amanda Freitag and Duff His Goldman, along with national celebrities like Nancy Silverton of Mozza and Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue, Naomi Pomeroy of The Beast and Pok his Pock. Portland celebrities such as Andy Ricker of Each year the Feast grows and the event gets bigger and bigger, covering the larger ecosystem of drink, culture and the culinary world. And the party that followed became a scene of its own, with chefs cheating on instant noodles until 4am and sommeliers standing at the bar counter drinking wine straight from the bottle. It was a huge success and inspired a sister festival, Hot Luck, in Austin.

Of course, the feast was canceled in 2020 because the COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the restaurant industry. I tried to focus more on the procurement department. The team also increased rewards for local chefs. Emily Crowley, director of his Feast in 2021, told Eater:

But Tellin said portland monthly Even the new and improved festival conditions were difficult. The Delta variant gained momentum in its first event in 2021, but the grants they relied on to revive the event ultimately didn’t pay off. ‘It killed our momentum,’ he said portland monthlyThis is Karen Brooks. “I tried to move things forward in 2022, but there were too many mountains to climb operationally, emotionally and physically.

In an official statement, Therin confirmed that the festival will not be returning. “In 2012, we set out to create a culinary festival worthy of the city we love, valuable to the industry we represent, and relevant to the world of food,” he wrote. . “I’m proud that Feast succeeded in all respects. Looking back, it could have ended when it should have.”

portland monthly Like the Feast newsletter, Hotluck is expected to live on. Additionally, Thelin said they plan to host several smaller Oregon-based events in the future. But the behemoth, which was at his festival of Food in the Feast, held his last grand tasting.

Read the full Instagram announcement below.