On October 2, 2010, over 30,000 people enjoyed a glorious sunny day of fun, delicious local food, and a sweet feeling of community at the first Boston Local Food Festival. After great success with the first festival, SBN organized and presented the second annual Boston Local Food Festival on October 1, 2011 showcasing over 100 food-related vendors- from local farmers, to cheese makers to sustainable fisheries and restaurants- that promoted their businesses and causes to great acclaim. Over 30,000 festival spectators joined the fun again this year, despite the morning rains.
The festival succeeded in connecting thousands of people to local food, as well as creating hundreds of connections between local food entrepreneurs, nonprofit organizations, and community leaders. This breakthrough event, together with the other work of SBN and its allied organizations, has already had a transformative effect on the local and regional food movement that will last for years to come.
The Local Craft Brew Tasting party was a huge success with over 600 participants tasting 30 different varieties of local beer, cider, wine and mead! The 22 non-profits at the festival were key to educating attendees in a fun atmosphere about the importance and benefits of healthy local food for all! The chef-demos generated a lot of excitement and proved to be big crowd pleasers. The local talent, including a wide variety of fabulous musicians and dancers kept festivalgoers entertained throughout the day! It was a beautiful day for local food and the City of Boston
SBN was pleased that the efforts to make the festival a Zero-Waste event were highly successful, with 86% of all waste diverted to compost and recycling (up from 76% last year!). This years Boston Local Food Festival was definitely another successful event for SBN and the City of Boston; generating over 5,000,000 gross media impressions and featured in national newspapers, blogs, websites and radio shows including WBUR 90.9 FM and the The Herald!
Stayed tuned for information on the next Boston Local Food Festival. Click here to visit the Boston Local Food Festival website for more information.
