Seen as springboard for vendors, Karachi Eat Food Festival underway

The 10th iteration of the popular Karachi Eat Food Festival opened Friday at Beach View Park, with 150 stalls and live entertainment amidst dropping temperatures in Karachi. The festival is slated to run until January 8 (Sunday).

Crowds gathered to take in the opening night at the popular annual food festival. The event is known for bringing together new and established food artisans with vendors ranging from independent restaurants to food manufacturers. It has also become a springboard for food vendors looking to gain a footing in the industry.

According to reports, the festival expects to welcome 250,000 foodies though the course of the weekend.

Popular stalls included Burridos with their famous philly cheese steak sandwich, Roadhouse Kitchen for their burgers, peri bites from Amreen's Kitchen, Wrapped, coffee at Sky bar and many more.

Also to look forward to is communal, family-style eating areas, as well as live entertainment. Asim Azhar of 'Habibi' fame entertained the crowds on the opening night, with Bilal Maqsood, Zeb Bangash and more slated to perform over the weekend.

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The festival also partnered with Careem to facilitate transport to and from the venue, along with Tokrie, an online grocery app that will enable groceries to be delivered to vendors at their stalls. Foodpanda, the online food delivery service, will also be delivering food from the festival to customers unable to attend.

Since its launch, Karachi Eat has evolved from a few stalls to welcoming close to 100,000 visitors, according to organisers, in 2020. The event was not held in 2021.

Last year, the event was held under the shadow of rising Covid cases in the city, with organisers at the time saying they expected half the number of visitors compared with the previous edition in 2020.