It’s time to put some sizzle in your summer plans, Taste of Calgary style.

Taste of Calgary is the city’s most appetizing festival, giving visitors an aperitif of the city’s food and beverage culture.

The festival is returning this August after being absent from the festival scene since 2019 due to the pandemic.

The hotly anticipated event is also expecting a return to form, with around 100,000 attendees visiting vendors and food trucks over the four days of the festival.

“We weren’t able to produce our events for the last two years because of COVID, because of the gathering restrictions, restrictions in restaurants—and also the restaurants had struggled to even participate,” said Jennifer Rempel, event producer for the Taste of Calgary.

Visitors can expect the same experience as years past, with micro-sized bites available from dozens of Calgary restaurants and food trucks. The biggest difference, said Rempel, is that the location has changed.

“Since the Eau Claire Plaza is under renovation, we found a new location, which is a city-wide long surface parking lot on 4 Avenue and 9 Street SW,” she said.

Taste of Calgary will be located in the Calgary Parking Authority’s lot 6, which is adjacent to the Bow River Pathway, and Peace Park.

The event runs from August 4 to 7, and goes from 11 am to 10 pm.

Global cuisines made local

According to Rempel, visitors will be able to discover Calgary’s global cuisines from a mix of unique purveyors.

“As far as restaurants participating, we’ve got some of our old favourites back in, and we’ve got tons of new participants, including Blower’s & Grafton with their maritime mini lobster rolls,” said Rempel.

“We’ve also got the famous CHUNK’D cookies, which is a great sensation in Kensington coming with their cookies for everybody to try,” she said.

“We’ve got V Burger coming with a ton of great vegan and vegetarian options, and then of course—as the breweries and distilleries have grown around our city—we have them participating with Wild Life Distillery and a ton of great culturally interesting foods.”

Sampling tickets are one dollar each, with individual food and beverage items costing between two and seven tickets. Sampling tickets can be purchased online in advance, and a full menu of items is available on the Taste of Calgary site.

Admission to the festival is free, and includes, appropriately enough according to Rempel, a taste of Calgary’s best musical acts.

Participating vendors for 2022