By Ling Hui
KUCHING, June 25: Kuching South City Council (MBKS) mayor Dato Wee Hong Seng has clarified that only 394 food stalls were selected for this year’s Kuching Festival, not 457 as alleged.
He said the event committee was still in a meeting to finalise the list of food stalls when the said news report was published and circulated on social media.
Disclosing the number of selected food businesses for the first time, Wee said there are 232 half stalls, 64 single stalls, 21 double stalls, and 71 premium stalls.
“Other than these, we have set aside a few stalls for the consulates in Sarawak namely China, Indonesia, and Brunei as well as for the local dialect association, and sponsors.
“There will also be one stall specially set up for gastronomy. So, altogether we counted 394 stalls, and this number does not include the 90 booths for the indoor trade fair,” said Wee during his ShallWeeTalk Facebook live session today.
Noting the past record of about 280 stalls in the 2019 edition of the Kuching Fest, he said this year’s festival has registered the highest capacity in history.
“We initially only targeted 250 stalls, but there were altogether 541 submissions.
“As for those that were eliminated, some proposed to sell food items that we deem inappropriate while the majority of others wanted to sell the same types of food,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Wee expressed gratitude to local media houses and social media accounts for their overwhelming attention to this year’s Kuching Festival.
Though believing that the intention was to promote the event, he urged for accurate publications to avoid misinformation. — DayakDaily
