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Congregation of fine food and culture

Food brings people together and teaches us about different lifestyles, cultures, even historical backgrounds. And if you were one of the 20,000 hungry, hot-but-happy, Sunday-morning wanderers who took to Danks Street on Sunday October 26 for the Danks Street Festival, you would have noticed what a wonderfully proud, colourful and cultural community we are becoming reports Scott Winter in the South Sydney Herald of November 2008.

People of all ages, from near and far, basked in the glory of the sun, and many local-based gourmet food and fresh produce market-style stalls. Each stall was an authentic representation of a gastronomic serving from a specific part of the world, and a local business (most of which have been reviewed in my monthly restaurant/cafe review column).

Mayan Coffee, situated at the top of Danks Street, Waterloo, offered free samples of their cinnamon and chili-flavoured coffee and chocolate from Guatemala. Lorenso's Mussels had passers-by queuing, and in awe of the huge Spanish paellas being cooked.

Steven Ryan, 30, a local resident and food lover, said: “What a fabulously flamboyant day! It’s great that this happens. A lot of people don't get to travel overseas. Or get to eat at all these great local restaurants, so a congregation of fine food and culture like this gives people a taste of what they haven't tried and what they are missing out on. It should happen more often.”

With an expanded artist market, live music, DJs and a children's craft area, there was plenty to do as well as eat. Performances from Sydney singer Tracy Redhead, Redfern-based bands, the Resurrectors and the Donovans, and popular funk group, Boom Band Krewe, along with a speech from Lord Mayor Clover Moore, kept the afternoon moving along.

Maybe events organisers at the City of Sydney should consider a Danks Street Festival on a larger scale and introduce something similar – like the Nottinghill Carnival in London: a grand, colourful carnival in the centre of Sydney, an Olympics of fine food and music to demonstrate and celebrate the wonderful cultures around us.

Source: South Sydney Herald November 2008 www.southsydneyherald.com.au