By CAROLYN BROWN
Staff Writer
Foodies, rejoice: Taste of Northampton is almost here again — and it’s even bigger than last year.
Keisha Moore, left, and Jesse Ortiz, both of Chicopee, dine on Mexican Street Corn and Lobster Sliders from Fitzwilly’s Restaurant during the Taste of Northampton last year. The event returns Sept. 13 and 14. / PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER EVANS
The food festival Taste of Northampton will return this year on Saturday, Sept. 13, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 14, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., in the Armory Street Parking Lot.
The event will feature dozens of local restaurants and food vendors; the culinary offerings will include pierogies, pizza, dumplings, gourmet burgers, gumbo, fried Oreos, tacos, pulled pork sliders, veggie lo mein, mac and cheese bites, beef bourguignon stew, peach cheesecake parfaits, Russian kebabs, crab cakes, hot dogs, and Herrell’s ice cream — among many others — and beers, wines, coffees, and non-alcoholic drinks.
Taste of Northampton will also have family-friendly activities and live performances. The musical lineup for the weekend includes Los Consentidos (“infectious Latin rhythms”), The Classicals (“guitar-driven rock” from western Massachusetts), Daisy Skelton (“London-based indie-pop artist with tender, honest songwriting”), The Hendersons Blues Band (“over 40 years of blues”), and Bongohead (“Cuban-American DJ and artist spinning an eclectic set blending global sounds”).
Jeffrey Hoess-Brooks, Taste of Northampton organizer and general manager of the Hotel Northampton, said that when he started working at the hotel 37 years ago, Northampton was known as a “restaurant mecca” within the Pioneer Valley. Nowadays, he said, what still makes the town a great place for an event like this is, “We just have such great restaurants in the area and restaurateurs that all work together and get along great and really want to make Northampton shine as a place for food.”
Karen Carswell, treasurer of the Downtown Northampton Association, said the festival is “all about that September magic in western Mass. The air shifting, school starting, and the community coming together. It’s a weekend filled with music, connection, and flavors that carry memories.”
Jeffrey Hoess-Brooks, a member of the board of the DNA and one of the organizers of the Taste of Northampton stands with Karen Carswell, a DNA board member, in the Armory Street parking lot where the taste will be held this year on Sept. 13 and 14. The event will have over 30 vendors as well as a kids zone. Staff Photo/Carol Lollis
She, like Hoess-Brooks, agreed that Northampton is a great place for a food festival because the town is “at the heart of western Mass’ incredible food system.”
“Our restaurants are connected to local farms, dairies, and food producers who supply some of the freshest ingredients in New England,” Carswell said. “From nearby fields to downtown kitchens, food here has a short trip and a long story, and it’s one that celebrates our farmers, distributors, and chefs all working together. It’s that connection between source and plate that makes eating in Northampton unforgettable.”
The festival’s history dates back to the 1990s and early 2000s, when it was a wildly successful four-day event and reportedly the model for other “Taste of” events in other New England towns.
“It was the biggest thing,” said Amit Kanoujia, owner of India House, which has been part of Taste of Northampton every year since the festival began. “It was something everybody looked forward to.”
By 2003, Kanoujia estimated, interest had dipped: “They just lost the groove.”
In 2019, local restaurant owners approached town officials about bringing Taste of Northampton back in 2020 — which was, of course, very unlucky timing.
After a two-year pandemic pause, Mayor Sciarra’s economic development team was able to bring back the festival, thanks to state grant funding. By that point, restaurant owners had been hit hard and were eager to bring in customers again.
From 2022 through 2024, Taste of Northampton was a one-day event, drawing about 10,000 people each year. In a 2022 op-ed in the Gazette, Sciarra credited the strength of business-government partnership and called the festival’s first year back “a triumphant success,” albeit with a few hiccups.
Hundreds of community members gathered on Main Street for the Taste of Northampton food festival last year. This year, the event returns Sept. 13 and 14. / FILE PHOTO/DAN LITTLE
“But in the end, the sea of happy faces and dancing in the street won the day,” she wrote. This year, Hoess-Brooks said, expanding the festival is a way of bringing it back to its heyday.
Kanoujia said what he’s most looking forward to about Taste of Northampton is “putting Northampton back on the map.”
“There’s been this notion that Northampton is no longer as vibrant as it used to be, and there’s nothing further from the truth,” Kanoujia said. “Northampton hasn’t lost a step.”
Now that the festival is a two-day event, organizers expect an even bigger turnout — an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people.
“It’s gonna be a great weekend,” Hoess-Brooks said. “An amazing weekend.”
Admission is free, and dishes are typically $5 to $8 each. Parking is free throughout Northampton, minus the E.J. Gare Parking Garage. For more information about Taste of Northampton, visit facebook.com/tasteofnorthampton or instagram.com/taste_of_northampton.
Carolyn Brown can be reached at cbrown@gazettenet.com.
