By Karen Bong
KUCHING, Aug 29: Kuching Food Festival (KFF) 2026 stall operators who feel they were unfairly penalised for allegedly failing to comply with operating conditions can write to the Kuching South City Council (MBKS) to explain their circumstances.
MBKS Mayor Dato Wee Hong Seng said the council understood that there could be legitimate reasons why an operator was not physically present at a stall when enforcement officers conducted checks.
“If you feel that you were actually there, or that you were in the back preparing things, or at home preparing the food, you can write to us and explain the situation,” he said during his ShallWeeTalk live session today.
He said the council’s checks were not intended to unfairly punish operators, but to ensure that the festival’s stall allocation system remained fair and that successful applicants themselves operated the stalls.
According to Wee, officers would conduct checks at individual stalls to determine whether the applicant was present, with some inspections carried out more than once.
He acknowledged that with between 300 and 400 stalls operating during the festival, some issues were bound to arise.
“If there are problems, we need to get the situation clear because there are reasons why we do these things,” he said.
Wee stressed that the conditions imposed on KFF stall operators were intended to prevent the abuse of the allocation system, including the subletting or resale of stalls.
He said the council had tightened its regulations after encountering cases in previous years where successful applicants allegedly transferred or sold their stall allocations to others for a profit.
“First, you cannot sublet. Second, you cannot sell it,” he said, referring to the conditions attached to stall allocations.
He said allowing such practices could result in people taking advantage of the system and driving up the cost of stalls, ultimately disadvantaging genuine operators who wanted to participate in the festival.
Wee also urged the public to understand the rationale behind the council’s enforcement measures, saying MBKS wanted to ensure that opportunities were fairly distributed and that operators were selected based on their creativity and suitability.
He said the council had also seen cases where stalls were advertised for sale on social media, questioning why the benefits intended for successful applicants should instead be transferred to others for profit.
“These are the things we need everyone to understand. We are doing this to protect the integrity of the festival,” he said.
Wee added that operators who received letters from the council following inspection reports should not assume that the matter was automatically final, as they could respond and provide an explanation if they believed there were valid circumstances.
He said the approach had been in place not only for this year’s festival but also in previous years.
KFF, he stressed, was a major event that required months of preparation and significant manpower, with MBKS choosing to retain overall management of the festival to ensure its quality and standards were maintained.
“We put six months of effort into organising this. Every day, we worry about electricity, the weather and many other issues,” he said.
Wee said managing more than 400 stalls over the festival period was a substantial undertaking, and maintaining the event’s reputation required cooperation from both the council and operators. — DayakDaily
