Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.182 | feat. Carrie Wojtaszek from Taste of Syracuse

Episode Date: May 29, 2026

Taste of Syracuse Preview: $2 Samples, Live Music, and Art in the Park Host Matt Masur interviews Carrie Wojtaszek of Taste of Syracuse about the upcoming downtown Syracuse festival, held the first Friday and Saturday of June from 11:00 AM to 10:00 PM. Carrie, in her 18th year with the event, explains that the free festival features food vendors, food trucks, and restaurants offering $2 samples so attendees can try many options, plus three stages of nonstop live music with over 30 bands, mostly local, and a Saturday appearance by Fuel. The event also includes beverage tents and an expanded Art in the Park area in Perseverance Park showcasing local artists. Saturday partners with Paige’s Butterfly Run, and this year’s charitable partners are Honor Flight Syracuse and Feed Our Vets. She shares parking and timing tips, recommends coming hungry, and directs viewers to tasteofsyracuse.com for details. 00:00 Come Hungry Teaser 00:12 Meet The Host And Guest 01:15 What Is Taste Of Syracuse 02:37 Two Dollar Samples And Prep 03:22 Success Stories And Impact 04:33 Music Lineup Highlights 05:58 Crowds Hours And Charity 08:40 Parking Timing Pro Tips 10:04 Art In The Park Spotlight 11:25 Final Invite And Sign Off

Don't eat first. Yeah, don't eat first. This is the day maybe, you know, skip breakfast, be a little extra hungry. Yeah, yeah. There's no need to pregame for the taste. You come hungry. Hey, folks, welcome back to Good News. York.

I'm Matt Major from Clickstream Studios. This is a great time. We've got a great interview about something that's, I don't know, one of the, I would say, one of the most popular activities in Syracuse. We'll see. Go ahead and tell us who you are and where you're from. Yeah. So my name is Carrie Wattack, and I am with Taste of Syracuse.

So we have our big festival, one of the biggest ones, as you mentioned. Coming up, we are the unofficial kickstart to summer season right in downtown Syracuse. So we're really excited. We always are that first Friday and Saturday of June, so it's coming up very quickly. Wow. Now, how long have you been doing this, Taste of Syracuse event? I've been involved with The Taste now. This is my 18th year.

Oh, wow. So lots of years, lots of memories. And it's one of my favorite events. I say I have three kids, but I feel like the taste is like my fourth. That's incredible. So for folks who might not be familiar, I bet you're getting a hint based on the name that it might be a food-related event. But can you go ahead and just tell people what happens? What goes on it?

Yeah. So the Taste of Syracuse, obviously, it's about food. So we have lots of food vendors that come down. Food trucks, tents, some of your favorite restaurants, some people that only come out to do these types of festivals. And what's unique about the taste is every single one of our food vendors does a $2. sample. So you truly get to taste your way throughout the festival. It's held at the beginning of the summer on purpose as well because we want you to try something, fall in love with it, and then go, you know, visit that restaurant during the summer season and try, you know, what else they have to offer.

On top of it being a food festival, it's also a music festival. So we have three stages of live music going on the whole weekend. So we have over 30 different bands that are performing at the Taste of Syracuse. So it's really like a taste of our culture. Last year, we also added in a new element called art in the park. So over in Perseverance Park, which is connected to where we hold the taste, we now feature local artists. So you have your art, your music, your food, and everyone comes together, and it's really about, you know, making those moments and coming together and getting together with coworkers, friends, family, and coming out to enjoy some of the best things that Syracuse has to offer. What a cool event, and it's so neat to hear it evolve into these

different things with art and everything else. It's great, and I'll tell you what, the goal works. I've, I've been there in the past and there's been different vendors that I've tried something out. This is incredible. And now it's one of my favorite go-to spots, you know, year-round. You know, there's different events. They have all these things go try the restaurants or even at the fair, you know, you've got a lot of these great unique foods, but you're getting a whole meal every time. Yes. And to really be able to sample all these different places is pretty awesome. Yeah, yeah. You come with $20. I mean, you're getting those, you know, $10, $2 samples. You know, you fill it pretty quickly. And it's just fun for you.

us from, you know, promoting it and getting right now the $2 samples. They're all getting finalized right now, so we'll post that up on the website soon. We're working on the festival guide, all the last minute details, but it's really fun to see the behind the scenes, and then, you know, see it on a piece of paper, and then finally setting it up, getting

the tents, we set up all the tents next Wednesday, the vendors load in on Thursday, and then Friday you see it all come together. That's incredible. I got to ask you not to, you know, put anybody down, but what is your favorite of all these years? What's been your favorite sample?

Oh, my goodness, my favorite sample. Hmm. Well, you know, one thing that we did years ago, and we can quote, but a few different restaurants have actually opened because of the taste of Syracuse. So that's some of my favorite, I want to say necessarily the favorite food, but some of the favorite stories is people will test a concept out, and then they test it at taste. They realize, oh, I think I have something.

And then they're opening brick and mortar stores. based on our event. What a brilliant way to do that. Which is crazy, right? It's amazing to see what this event has done for people, even with some of our bands. I was recently talking to one of the singers from Primetime, and they're actually doing their 30th anniversary show

at The Taste of Syracuse. They're one of our favorite bands. They play almost every year. And he had mentioned that the Tastes really helped to put them on the map because people are kind of getting a taste of their music and then saying, oh, those guys were great at taste. Let me go find them at this bar or this restaurant. restaurant throughout the summer. So that's some of my favorites. That's awesome. And you know,

since we're on that topic of music, why don't you tell us a little bit more about what we might see this year? Yeah. So three stages, nonstop music. What's really unique as well about the event is that we have different genres of music going on at all times. So again, one of my favorite things to do, say on Friday night, the festival's running, you get to take a little break, maybe go try some samples, and then walking from stage to stage and seeing, you know, you might be over on the visit Syracuse, Erie Stage, and you have Sophistic Funk playing. And then you have, you know, primetime horns on another stage. And then you have a 90s rock band on the main stage.

So it's really great to see that and to go from stage to stage. And again, see all the people together, see them making memories. And people are out. They're smiling. Because if we're not doing these festivals, what's everyone doing? Right? There's different places. But it's really a connector and love seeing that.

But great musicians, primarily local bands. We do have the band Fuel. If you're a 90s fan, they're going to be coming on Saturday. So we're excited to welcome them to Sarahue's, but otherwise, great local bands. Everything is up at Tastasahue.com. There's just so many different bands playing. That's so cool. That's always the best part.

You know, you load up on your samples. Yeah. You've got some yummy food and then go enjoy some live. Yummy food, cold drinks. So we get lots of beverage tents as well. But, yeah, it's just a really, really great way to kick off the summer season and really taste and see and feature the best of what Syrahues has to offer. How many people typically come through this event throughout the weekend?

We have thousands and thousands. I mean, hundreds of thousands of people have come in the past. What's unique to is it is a free festival. So a lot of festivals you go to, you know, you're paying at the gate. This is completely free. So it's a little tough to track attendance because we don't have a specific entry and exit point. But we're open. We open up at 11 a.m.

We go all the way till 10 o'clock at night. On Saturday, we partner with Pages Butterfly Run. So we say, come for the. the run and then stay for the taste. And it's a great way to support another really great local organization, get some exercise in, you know, so that way when you come to the festival, you're nice and hungry. And then one other element that we do every year with the event is we like to give back. So we pick different charitable partners each year. We try to pick different charities to highlight, not only to raise money, but also awareness. And with this year being the 250th

anniversary of America, we selected Clear Path, or I'm sorry, we selected feed our vets and also, sorry, I'm drawing a blank, honor flight, that's what I meant to say. I said a clear, but so we picked the charities and it's honor flight, Syracuse, and feed our vets. So two really great organizations that do a ton, specifically with veterans, and we're really excited to bring them, and we had honor flight many, many years ago. I think we decided it was 12 or 13 years ago. And then feed our vets, feed our vets, the new organization that, you know, a lot of people don't necessarily know about. So we're excited to kind of spread awareness for them and all the great things that they do.

That's great. That's great. It's such a wonderful community event, you know. And I think the appetite for that is growing. They're saying that's the trend. You know, we're finally sick of staring at things and staying in our houses and people really want to get out. And what a great way, like you said, to kick off the summer here in Syracuse and enjoy all the great things. We know how to eat around here.

Yeah, we do. We are very good at that. And any festival that celebrates that is pretty awesome, in my opinion. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think we all crave, you know, being with one another. We learn that, you know, the festival did obviously have to shut down a couple years because of COVID. And then coming out of that, I think we all realize, like, wow, we really want to be together. And all those of these devices are great.

It's amazing. You know, and when you come down to an event like Taste of Syracuse, you're bound to run into someone that you haven't seen. And years or months and it's just so nice to reconnect. and, you know, grab a beverage, listen to great music, try some samples. So we're excited for everyone to come out and enjoy the festival with us. I love it. Last couple questions, and I'll let you get back to it because I realize you've got to be crunch time right now, right? A little bit of crunch time.

Give me some tips for folks, like best place to park, maybe even best time to come by, things like that. Yeah. So the beauty of downtown Syracuse is there's plenty of parking. So I know sometimes people get nervous if you don't come downtown a lot, but there's a lot. of street parking. There's lots different lots around. Everything is very walkable, right? We live in this wonderful city where you can walk to a lot of places. So don't be afraid of that. There's parking garages all over. There's plenty of street parking. If you want to avoid the lines, you know, coming earlier or not during those peak, you know, obviously our lunchtime crowd is very big.

Our dinner time crowd is very big as well. But if you have an afternoon off, like say on Friday and you want to come down, we welcome you to come down. You know, that's a little secret. You can come and beat the lines. The food is hot, the drinks are cold, and we'll be ready for you as soon as you arrive. I love it. I love it. The hours one more time throughout the weekend, if we could. So 11 a.m. till 10 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday. And live music, like I said, if you check out Tast to Saracuse.com, we'll be getting the samples up there soon. But all the information you can find it there. Scope out, you know, your favorite bands. And then I also recommend, you know, coming to, if you haven't heard of some of these bands, come on out and take a listen because they're all

fantastic. There's nothing like live music. Yes. It's just, even if it's not necessarily even your particular style of music, there's just something about it, you know. It's great to see. Last thing, I just want to give a little more attention to this new art expansion of the festival. Can you just talk a little bit more about what you

might see there? Yeah. So we have local artists that will be an art in the park. So it's a way that we have worked with a local team and they've kind of curated this area. And it's just, again, we knew we had the food covered. We had the music covered, but we also have fantastic local artisans here. And so we really wanted to bring in that element. And luckily, Marissa on our team has reached out. She works closely with Tommy and they've put together this. There's a poster developed

for it, which is up on our website. And again, we just, we're all about being local and showcasing what's so great about Syracuse. I feel like oftentimes we sometimes are a town that likes to talk about what's not great. And I think we have so much to be proud of in our community. And And so this is just a really great way to showcase, you know, quite a bit of that. We absolutely do. And thank you so much for all your hard work to put this on. I'm sure no small feat to do all of this, coordinate all these different people and entities and everything. So this is awesome.

And I can tell you, we appreciate it. Yeah, well, thank you. Local folks around here absolutely love it. And it's just wonderful. Yeah, yeah. Well, we're excited. Tastasaracuse.com is the spot to get all the details, sounds like. Yeah.

You don't need tickets. Normally we tell people get your tickets. You don't have to have tickets. You don't have to have your tickets. Just come on down. Yeah, come on down. Come hungry.

Come thirsty. Don't eat first. Yeah, don't eat first. This is the day maybe, you know, skip breakfast, be a little extra hungry. Yeah, yeah. There's no need to pregame for the taste. You come hungry. I love it.

I love it. Thank you so much. Thank you. And that'll do it for today's episode of Good News York. This is awesome. I'm now hungry. This might be a problem. But I'm very excited.

And we'll see you next time, guys. Peace out.