One of the city's biggest — and tastiest — food festivals has been rescheduled amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The 42nd-annual Taste of Cincinnati, a massive three-day food-centric event that offers flavors from throughout the city, has announced that they will push back their originally scheduled dates of May 23-25 to July 3-5.
"The nation’s longest running free culinary arts festival is traditionally held on Memorial Day weekend. The postponement is due to measures in place to stop the spread of COVID-19," a press release reads.
The event is free to attend and will again take place along Fifth Street downtown.
While the main event has been rescheduled, Taste of Cincinnati has organized a virtual event in its place, aptly named "Virtual Taste of Cincinnati." The digital fest will take place April 3-5 and encourages participants to support their favorite restaurants, food trucks and Findlay Market vendors by ordering carry-out, drive-thru or delivery and to share their meals on social media with the hashtag #virtualtastecincy. According to the press release, the website will be updated with Taste of Cincinnati partners' special offers and menus for the weekend of April 3-5.
In addition to supporting your local eateries, Taste of Cincinnati will be hosting cooking demos and recipes by chefs and experts from various restaurants, food trucks, members from Findlay Market and Kroger on their website; beer makers will be hosting "brewery tap-ins" where they will discuss food and beer pairings, brewing and beer history; live music will be streamed by local musicians (who will be taking donations through Venmo and PayPal); and you can even participate in a Virtual Eat & Run 5K where participants can choose their own route and are encouraged to photograph themselves and post with the hashtag #virtualeatandruncincy (registration begins April 1).
Taste of Cincinnati has teamed up with Cincy Shirts to offer a "Carry Out, Carry On Cincinnati" T-shirt, where $5 of the proceeds from the shirt sale will benefit the regional Cincinnati small business community.
Applications are still being accepted for the Taste of Cincinnati event for Independence Day weekend.
For more info, visit tasteofcincinnati.com.
