The Bite of Seattle is an annual food festival that takes place in Seattle, Washington, at the Seattle Center. The official name is the Albert Lee Appliance Bite of Seattle. It is also more known locally as "The Bite", and the festival is held on one weekend during the month of July. With over 200 vendors that are featured, this festival is considered to be Seattle's earliest and greatest event that involves food and beverages. Although food is the number one reason people come to visit The Bite, there are also many other attractions that this festival has to offer. Furthermore, the best part about the Bite of Seattle is that it is absolutely free to attend.
History
Back in July 1982, Alan Silverman, the president of Festivals, Inc., founded this festival which was originally held at Green Lake Park. Initially, it was expected that roughly 25,000 people would attend, but there was a total of 25 restaurants participating and 75,000 in attendance. In 2006, these number increased and exponentially grew as there were 60 restaurants and food vendors participating and over 425,000 visitors. Throughout the rest of the years, the number of visitors averaged out to about 400,000 people over the course of the three day long festival with over 60 restaurants participating. The 2020 Bite of Seattle and Taste of Tacoma were both cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Accomplishments
For two consecutive years, 2016 and 2017, the Bite of Seattle was voted the "Best Food Festival" in the United States. On April 4, 2019, Alan Silverman was inducted into the Hall of Fame for the Washington Festival and Events Association. This was mainly due to his success of coordinating and creating many popular festivals, including the Bite of Seattle.
Attractions
The Bite offers many attractions for food lovers and foodies including food sampling from local restaurants, food cook-off competitions, eating competitions, new foods and vendors, commercial vendors, traveling tours and child-friendly activities. There are also many activities and entertainment that aren't related to food which includes live entertainment, stage performances, a free movie night, craft beer & cider tasting, beer gardens, watching local chefs cook, etc. Bite of Seattle hosts over 80 live bands that play on stage which feature mostly local and regional artists. These various performances are usually held at one of the three main stages. Either the Fountain Lawn Stage, the Mural Stage, and finally the Fisher Green Stage.
