Wall Street Journal has an excellent article discussing the growth of food festivals, even in the current economic downturn (“Despite Down Economy, Large Apetite for Food Festivals,” by Pervaiz Shallwani).
The two oldest food shows — Aspen and South Beach — have now been joined by nearly a dozen others, including the two-year old Food Network New York City Food & Wine Show that we attended last week. The festival was packed!
Other food shows around the country: Chicago Gourmet Food & Wine Festival, Kohler Food & Wine Experience in Kohler, Wisc., Atlantic City, N.J., Eagle, Idaho, Kitsap, Wash., Shelburne, Vt., St. Joseph, Mich., Newport, R.I., Oxon Hill, Md., and Hudson Valley, N.Y. And that’s not even counting all the Food Network shows in different cities.
What this shows is that people still love to eat, even when the economy is down. The celebrity chef phenomenon and the Food Network have turned the food industry into an even bigger mega-industry where people vote with their mouths.
