Taste of Cincinnati vendors closed up shop two hours earlier than expected Friday.
Festival organizers decided pull the plug at 9 p.m. instead of 11 p.m.
“Thank to Gym Class Heroes for an amazing performance and kicking off the memorial weekend,” the festival wrote in a Facebook post Friday evening. “See you tomorrow at 11:00am!”
Despite a weekend forecast full of rain, the festival is slated to continue as normal on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Monday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Taste of Cincinnati is the longest-running culinary festival in the United States. This year, the event added Friday as its fourth day for the first time ever.
It was founded in 1979 as a one-day celebration of all things culinary Cincinnati, and originally took place in Piatt Park. Now, it takes place across Fifth Street downtown every single Memorial Day weekend. It’s free to enter, and features over 80 vendors selling various food items for $10 or under. There will also be over 30 acts performing live entertainment at the festival’s three stages.
If you want to check out the full map of all 80+ vendors, click here to check out the official Taste of Cincinnati website.
CityBeat was the only publication to judge all four categories in this year’s Best of Taste competition. You can read about our writer’s experiences judging day 1 and day 2, or read the list of overall winners.