After 26 years, downtown St. Petersburg’s original food and music festival is taking a break. A Taste of Pinellas benefiting All Children’s Hospital will be on hiatus for 2013 while organizers retool the event for future success.
“While A Taste of Pinellas has enjoyed great success, we have also experienced a decline in overall attendance and an increase in expenses to run this three-day event,” said Cindy Rose, ACH Vice President of Marketing. “Today, there are many more community events and entertainment venues competing for the public’s time and money. We felt it was a good time to take a strategic look at all facets of the event to see if we can make it better for the future.”
I wrote last year about how I had lost my appetite for Taste of Pinellas because too many of the restaurants featured at ‘Taste of Pinellas’ are either chain establishments which could be part of Taste-of-fill-in-the-blank or are restos located RIGHT NEXT to where ‘Taste of Pinellas’ is hosted.
Of course, A Taste of Pinellas has always been about helping the kids at All Children’s Hospital. It was born out of volunteers who had personal experiences with children being cared for expertly at the hospital. This hiatus will afford the opportunity to concentrate on how best to ensure that Taste is an event that everyone in the Bay Area wants to attend – so that it ultimately can continue to support the work of All Children’s Hospital.
During the next year, the hospital will work with community and restaurant partners to develop a plan for a new “Taste” or a similar type of event that the community will enjoy. The goal is to have an event that brings people together to have a good time and celebrate the difference All Children’s makes to the lives of our community’s children.
