All hail the Kuching Festival. This annual pilgrimage of food is now in its 34th year, running since 1986, since before Kuching was a city, since before MBKS was a council. This event has grown up with our city and our city has grown up with this event. Every August, over 300 food stalls throng the car park of the Dewan Masyarakat at MBKS, transforming the space into a food temple over 24 straight days of eating. In 2022, it broke all records, bringing in 1.2 million people to sample foods on a stick, the salted egg smorgasbord, endless oyster omelettes, durian one thousand ways and, last year, sushi tacos. It is tradition, it is creativity, it is community, it is all things Kuching food.
Check out our Kuching Festival 2023 Map here.
Nightly entertainment, a trade fair, garden walks, a fun fair, fireworks and general festivities complete the scene. But the big draw is always the food. This is where established food businesses, cultural associations, heritage chefs and even first-time festival virgins with a great recipe vie for attention of the great Kuching food public. The spread is immense and so are the crowds. This year’s offering looks set to be the biggest ever and, with culinary creativity running high in Kuching, we expect an exciting eating experience on each of its 24 nights.
This year, over 800 applicants put their hat in the ring for this event. With so many possibilities and of such high quality, MBKS decided to let fate decide and drew this year’s stallholders by blind ballot. So, old favourites return, new talents emerge and the Festival rumbles on, all chosen by the Gods of food. As with every year, we will see cultural associations and marginalised communities given space. With Kuching newly designated as a Creative City, we will see a giant pavilion dedicated to the city’s creative communities in which sustainable development initiatives will stand side by side with a nightly chef’s table, showcasing Kuching emerging culinary talents.
Over 24 days, the coverage of this epic event will continue. Eat your heart out!
