By Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, Aug 3: The first week of the Kuching Festival Fair 2022 recorded over 200,000 visitors, says Kuching South City Council (MBKS) mayor Dato Wee Hong Seng.
He said this year’s festival has 333 individual food stalls selling delicacies and 90 trade fair stores operating from July 29 until Aug 21.
“On our first night alone, we welcomed nearly 60,000 people through our gates.
“By the end of the first weekend, over 200,000 people have eaten at our many stalls,” he said at the opening ceremony of the Kuching Festival Fair 2022 held at MBKS Open Stage, Kuching Park last night (Aug 2).
The annual Kuching Festival made a remarkable comeback after two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the last festival back in 2019 having recorded over one million visitors.
He also mentioned 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 worldwide across the creative fields and 48 other cities of gastronomy.
At the same time, Wee opined that 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 the people.
“At Kuching Festival, we have food from every culture standing side by side. We have halal options next to non-halal. We see friends of every race and religion choosing their own dishes and then sitting together to eat. This is the Kuching spirit,” he emphasised. — DayakDaily
