SURREY - Surrey will finally see its own Food Cart Fest this Saturday (Aug. 9) after being pushed back over a month from its expected launch date in early July.
On Thursday, an article published by the Now said the event would be taking place this past Saturday (Aug. 2), but organizers changed the date leading up to the event.Surrey's manager of parks, Owen Croy, said the city was not notified until July 31 that the fest would not be happening that Saturday, just two days before the expected kick-off.Arrival Agency - the company responsible for hosting Vancouver's popular Food Cart Fest as well as Vancouver's annual arts and music festival Khatsalano - sent out a press release Friday (Aug. 1) saying Surrey's Food Cart Fest will happen on Aug. 9 instead."After continuous construction delays with the original location, Surrey Food Cart Fest will be launching on Saturday, Aug. 9 in Holland Park," the release stated.The original location, the new city hall plaza, regularly hosts a farmers' market where food trucks are often set up."They would normally only have three or four food trucks," said Croy of the farmers' market, noting that the Food Cart Fest is a different situation."We didn't have an area that was sufficiently large enough to accommodate (Food Cart Fest)," he said."We were just trying to figure out what the best spot is to do it in," said Daniel Fazio of Arrival Agency."With the Food Cart Fest, it's not just about eating, it's about community and it's about coming together in a space where you can hang out and enjoy company. We really, really loved Holland Park so we kept pushing the city to do something there."Fazio said that the Food Cart Fest could better utilize Holland Park than Surrey's new city hall plaza as the building is closed on Saturdays and has less foot traffic than the park. Along with street food from food trucks like Didi's Greek, DougieDog and Vij's Railway Express, the event will have an artisan market, DJs, kids' activities and more.Laurie Cavan, Surrey's general manager of parks, recreation and culture, said the food carts did not have their permits in place for a July launch, which led to the delay.Cavan admitted that there was no public notification of the festival's delay, so people who may have showed up at the new city hall plaza on July 5 for the inaugural bash were met with crickets."It was no one's intention to delay it," she said. "They just needed to meet a few requirements with Fraser Health which has all been taken care of now."Surrey's Food Cart Fest is set to kick off at 12 p.m. on Saturday (Aug. 9) and runs until 5 p.m. Admission to the event is free for the remainder of the summer.kalexandra@thenownewspaper.com