Fairway Street Food Festival set to sizzle Colombo from today

By Zahida Rizvi

Amidst the chaos of the pandemic and economic tension in Sri Lanka, the trend of hanging out over the weekend with good food and memories across street stalls had witnessed a gap in recent times; fortunately, the Fairway Colombo Street Food Festival looks forward to establishing Colombo as “the place” to be for an event filled with flavours of culinary diversity and a pool of young local talent to entertain.

Fairway Colombo General Manager Gihan Fernando explains to Daily FT in an exclusive interview that the Fairway Colombo Street Food Festival will be commencing on 28 October, henceforth, will continue every month in Hospital Street Colombo. 

“The Fairway Colombo Street Cuisine Festival hopes to attract both domestic and international tourists to Sri Lanka by providing access to tasty, reasonably priced native street food, to make the area a tourist hot spot, and, the event is set to be a festive bustle of music, artists, jugglers, and of course the pièce de résistance – mouth-watering cuisines, made up of a delicious combination of local and international flavours,” Fernando added.

In an attempt to set new standards for food festivals in the region with its ultimate brand of entertainment mixed with ambiance and venue, the event is being planned with the high goal of not only filling a void in Colombo’s events scene by producing a first-of-its-kind event but also building a community and providing a platform for both seasoned and aspiring restaurateurs. 

Fernando further pointed out opportunities for local vendors and small-scale business owners are expected to boost sales and local talent will be able to be showcased by participating in the event. The Colombo Street food festival offers a variety of international cuisines, including macarons, burgers, smoothies, fruits, burritos, takoyaki, tandoori, sausage, tacos, kebabs, wraps, bowls, toasts, pretzels, and ice cream. The festival strives to promote Sri Lanka’s distinctive culinary heritage by offering a wide variety of dishes from around the world at reasonable costs to be the largest street food festival to ever take place in Colombo.

Street cuisine in general benefits the local economy as it comes in a huge range and frequently reflects regional traditional cultures and both the basic ingredients and the methods used to prepare street food beverages, snacks, and meals are very diverse.