By Deidre Montague
With summer right around the corner, it’s the time of year for the annual Hartford Taste Street Festival.
The event will be hosted from Friday, June 6 through Saturday, June 7 from 12 noon to 9 p.m. in Downtown Hartford on Pratt and Trumbull Streets, in the heart of the city’s central business district.
The festival has free admission and offers attendees access to over 30 local restaurants and businesses. Food and drinks are also available for purchase with Taste Tickets, which will be available on site.
This year’s proceeds are going to Connecticut Foodshare to support their work in addressing food insecurity in the region.
Managing Partner at the Shipman and Goodwin Firm Leander Dolphin said that she is grateful that the firm has launched the official media campaign for the upcoming festival.
“We are genuinely grateful that we can still come together today to celebrate the upcoming festival and the wonderful community that it represents…The Hartford Taste festival represents so much more than just an opportunity to enjoy world class entertainment and sample delicious food from our local restaurants. It really is about strengthening the bonds within our Hartford business community, celebrating our shared culture and supporting local businesses,” she said.
City of Hartford’s Chief Operating Officer Olusegun “Shay” Ajayi said that the festival is a celebration of many things.
“It’s a celebration of food, celebration of culture, arts, creativity, community. At the heart of the Hartford Taste festival is truly our community. This is where we spotlight our chefs. This is where we spotlight our restaurants, our artists, our entrepreneurs. This is where our residents from all of all ages come out to celebrate and bring their friends and families. This is where people from all over the state of Connecticut and beyond, come out to see what Hartford truly has to offer. Harford Taste embodies the capital city showcasing our talents. So it is an amazing event, and we’re looking forward to it,” he said.
He also said that this year’s event will be nothing short of successful and encouraged community members to invite their friends and family to join them at this year’s festival.
“I also plan to go to this event (this year). I went last year, and I saw so many people in the streets…everyone in the street was smiling. Everyone in the street (was) having a great time. I think it rained a bit, but that didn’t stop people from staying at the event, actually. And this year, hopefully we’ll have great weather. I think we will. But I encourage you to invite your friends, invite your family, come out and see what Hartford has to bring. See what Harford has to offer…let’s make this event another memorable and impactful event,” he said.
The Hartford’s Senior Vice President of Small Commercial Sales and Distribution Lynn Kennedy said that the organization is thrilled to return as one of the sponsors of the festival and to cover all vendor fees for restaurants to participate for free.
“At The Hartford, we ensure more than 1 million small businesses and we know that they are truly the heart of our economy. We care deeply about removing barriers for small businesses and helping them to be successful, and we take pride in supporting them in any way that we can. We believe working with small business owners is a privilege. Their talent, their dedication, their ability to adapt and persevere, are truly inspiring. We are honored to support such remarkable people who contribute so much to their local communities.” she said.
Executive Director of the Hartford Chamber of Commerce Julio Concepción said that he remembers in 2019 when the founder of Hartford Taste, Marc Sherer, met with him and another colleague about the idea of hosting a food festival in the city and how they bought into the idea quickly.
“As someone who’s as even as bullish as I am, I did not expect the success of this festival so quickly, and that’s a huge testament to what Marc and Jeanette (Dardenne) have done over the last several years…It gets bigger and better every single year…I want to thank those restaurants that are taking part in this year’s event…You really do make this city what it is today…there’s nothing like food and music to really connect to community and Hartford is one of those great communities that has both incredible assets. So I can’t wait. This is certainly one of my favorite events of the year,” he said.
Sherer remembers that meeting with Concepción and said that community members have now embraced the festival.
“We have 29 musical acts participating on two stages again this year. These are local, homegrown musicians. These are people who are good, though. They’re very good, and we have artists who are creating live art on the site. They’re comfortable with the fact that people can walk up behind them while they’re painting, sculpting, or doing their art and being creative with their left side of their brain and talking to you, and you get to explore a little bit of that creative side of people. We learn a little bit more about what makes Hartford interesting when you get to do that,” he said.
He also said that he has heard conversations about the culture of Hartford and how the festival represents the shared culture the community has and he agrees.
“May be the proudest thing that we have, that I get from this festival, is the fact that we have people from all of our neighborhoods come to participate, and from our suburb area come down into Hartford. And if they haven’t been in Hartford for a while, they go…‘Yeah, look at this. This is cool’…we’re proud of the fact that people get to come and experience the different varieties of music that we represent because we tried to represent the neighborhoods. We represent different culinary cuisines, and they’re really across the board. We do have over 30 restaurants participating this year,” he said.
Lastly, he is proud of the fact that the Hartford Taste Festival represents the shared culture in its music, art, and food.
“We get to come together and rub shoulders with people we normally don’t see, and we find out how much fun people have (through) those smiles on (their) faces. We’ve had three years of this festival, and it just continues to expand, and more people keep coming and have more experiences with each other and their fellow Hartfordites,” he said.
