KUCHING: Kuching Festival started off with a bang by recording over 200,000 visitors in the first week.
Kuching South City Council (MBKS) mayor Datuk Wee Hong Seng said on its first night alone, the festival recorded an impressive entrance of visitors numbering about 60,000 through the gates.
“By the end of the first weekend, over 200,000 people have patronised our many stalls.
“We have 333 individual food stalls this year, selling different delicacies and 90 trade fair stores operating from July 29 until August 21,” he said during the opening ceremony of the Kuching Festival Fair 2022 held at MBKS Open Stage, Kuching Park last Tuesday night (August 2).
He pointed out that this year’s festival was more significant as Kuching became the first city in Malaysia to become part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN), joining 295 cities in the world across the creative fields and 48 other cities of gastronomy internationally to collaborate and exchange on the unique food cultures.
“A booth has been set up here at the festival to highlight Sarawak’s creative food ecosystem and collaborative gastronomic efforts as part of the UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy recognition.
“Kuching Festival is the ultimate example of why Sarawak deserves the ‘City of Unity’ and ‘City of Gastronomy’ recognitions as it reflects how food unites our people.
“Over here at Kuching Festival, we have food from every culture standing side by side with each other, from halal options next to non-halal, and we see friends of every race and religion picking their own dishes and then sitting together to enjoy their food which shows the Kuching spirit,” he added.
He has also thanked the wide publicity offered by social media, bloggers, and the press that over one million views had been recorded on posts related to the festival.
