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The Famous Food Festival is coming back to Deer Park Tanger Outlets after seeing 40,000 visitors at its Long Island debut last year.
And there’s more in store for Year 2, said the event’s operators.
“We have new and exciting foods, stuff people haven’t seen before,” said Eric Ashravan, who co-founded the festival.
In addition to having 65-plus food vendors, there will be two rock-climbing walls, a 250-foot zip line, an art exhibit and virtual reality experience stations.
To see the full vendor list, click here.
The fest will run at Tanger on July 13 and July 14, then again on Oct. 12 to Oct. 13.
This year, the Famous Food Festival will also be running at the Riverhead Tanger Outlets on Aug. 10 and Aug. 11, where Grucci Fireworks will also be blasting off a performance.
All dates will run from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The cost of entree to all the events is $5 per day or $9 for two days. A portion of the funds raised from the days goes toward local charitable organizations.
Also, the festival’s founders are using this year’s event to create a friendly competition between the local badges.
In July, the Deer Park Fire Department will be facing off against Suffolk County Police officers from the area in a cook-off.
The same will happen in August, where the Riverhead Fire Department will compete against local police officers to see who makes the best dish.
The victors of both competitions will verse each other in the fall event in Deer Park. The winning team will receive $5,000.
some history
Ashravan launched the Famous Food Festival with his partner, Dylan Ross, three years ago in Manhattan.
“We just set up in a school parking lot on West 77th Street and Colombus Avenue in Manhattan and had 50 food vendors,” said Ashravan, “And we drew over 20,000 attendees; it was amazing.”
With all their success in New York City, the two, both of Dix Hills, wanted to bring their idea home to Long Island.
