Restaurants & Bars
Taste Of Marietta Postponed Until 2022
The annual food festival was planned for Oct. 24 this year, but has been postponed due to employee shortages, event officials said.
MARIETTA, GA — The annual Taste of Marietta food festival was scheduled for this fall, but is now postponed until spring 2022 due to employee shortages, the Marietta Visitors Bureau announced Tuesday.
The three-decade-old festival, originally scheduled for Oct. 24, is now planned for April 24, 2022. Taste of Marietta was also canceled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Food vendors who want to participate in the event next spring can apply starting in January, according to the Taste of Marietta website.
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"Our local restaurants are not able to participate due to employee shortages. Taste of Marietta is one of the largest and longest running food festivals in Cobb County and we want to maintain the quality of the festival," the announcement reads. "We look forward to seeing everyone next year for the best Taste of Marietta yet."
Restaurant owners in Cobb County, Georgia and across the nation have been struggling to find and hire employees. Some Cobb restaurant owners attribute the workforce shortage to extended federal unemployment benefits and eviction moratoriums, though the unemployment boost ended in June in Georgia, and eviction bans — excluding DeKalb County — ended in August.
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Others have said the pandemic's toll on the restaurant industry have sent restaurant workers into other service jobs or career paths, The Marietta Daily Journal reported.
Restaurants are still struggling even with help from the U.S. Small Business Association's Restaurant Revitalization Fund, which was created to help restaurants amid the COVID-19 pandemic but has already closed applications — and was only able to fund roughly one in three applications, according to the National Restaurant Association.
The Georgia Restaurant Association joined the National Restaurant Association and restaurant/hospitality groups from all 50 states in sending a letter to Congress Aug. 24, asking it to "complete the mission of the RRF and provide adequate funds to replenish the program" and offer relief to the 177,000 applications still pending.
"A majority of consumers have changed their dining behavior in a manner that is beginning to put acute pressure back on the restaurant industry. This development comes on top of food and labor costs that are increasing at their fastest pace in several years, continued indoor capacity limits in 11 states, and crushing longterm debt loads for countless restaurant owners," the letter reads, citing a national survey of customers assessing the state of the industry. "The small gains that our industry has made toward financial security are in danger of being wiped out, dashing the hopes of communities, entrepreneurs, and consumers nationwide."
For more information about Taste of Marietta, visit TasteofMarietta.com.
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