La Cocina, the nonprofit food-business incubator that spearheaded the first San Francisco Street Food Festival in 2009, has announced that this year's fest may be the last and at the very least it's the last one that will be happening on Folsom Street in the Mission. As Development and Communications Associate Michelle Fernandez tells SFist, "We're thrilled by all the support we've gotten over the years, and the fact that the festival grew from a single block party outside La Cocina to an annual beast of a celebration of owner-operated food businesses in the Bay Area." But, she says, due the unwieldy size of the event and various complaints from neighbors and 24th Street merchants, they've decided either to end on a high note this year or relocate to a different venue in another part of the city.
Fernandez says, "We’re going to try as hard as we can... [to find] grander, and equally urban, settings to feed you faster, better and with ever increasing attention to detail."
It seems that in addition to causing parking woes for residents in the neighborhood on the weekend of the event, 24th Street businesses have reported drops in business the day of the event, or in some cases, too much traffic that they can't handle. Also, Fernandez adds, it's become increasingly hard on the 8-person staff at La Cocina to throw an event of this scale, especially given that they have other important work to do.
As you may recall, La Cocina's launched the first S.F. Street Food Festival on a single block of Folsom between 24th and 25th in 2009 a footprint that immediately proved way too small for the popularity of street food, and for the amount of publicity the event got. The festival this year, on Saturday, August 16, will span over a mile, across over 8 city blocks, and will feature over 80 local vendors selling items priced under $10. As always, the festival is free to enter, and we recommend getting there early.
Stay tuned later in the summer for an update about vendors to be featured, both food- and beverage-wise.
