A major North Texas festival that was supposed to kick off this weekend has been discontinued after 30 years. The Taste Addison food festival promoted local restaurants and brought live music annually to Addison Circle Park. It was originally slated for April 17-19. But a few months ago, the A ddison city council made the decision to cancel the event, saying they were spending more than they were getting back. In a presentation to city council in January, officials say the town lost over $700,000 to host the festival last year. During council discussion, festival supporters said that could be considered a $700,000 investment in the promotion of Addison through social media views and success they’ve seen on social platforms. Councilman Howard Freed said that it seemed patrons are not spending a lot of money and the hotels are not filling up since attendees are mostly local. He also spoke on the high cost of national headlining bands that bring crowds but cost money. “I think we should have a restaurant week and not one night, but a whole week. I don’t care to line the pockets of these headliners. That’s not who I’m trying to help,” he said during the meeting. “I wanna help the restaurants. So I want to spend our money advertising the restaurants and getting people into the restaurants. And I think the event doesn’t work.” Now, city staff is looking to promote local businesses through smaller scale events throughout the year. “I think we can do Taste Addison throughout the year. I think we can do a very creative restaurant week in a way that only Addison could do that’ll generate just as much buzz, or views, or TV highlights,” said Chris DeFrancisco, Addison’s Deputy Mayor Pro Tempore. “I don’t know what you want to call that, but I also think we can break it down and target some things that we’ve been trying to figure out how to grow…So spread the whole tasting out all year and get maybe just as much if not more exposure.” An announcement by festival organizers confirmed the plan to redirect town resources toward new, creative ways to support Addison’s restaurant community. While the three-day festival will no longer take place, they agreed with the city that its core purpose should continue. “Staff has been asked to identify opportunities to promote Addison’s more than 200 restaurants in ways that extend throughout the year rather than focusing on a single weekend event,” Taste Addison said in a statement on social media. “The core purpose of Taste Addison – promoting Addison’s 200+ restaurants – will be reenvisioned to include new, year-round options to support and elevate North Texas’ most vibrant dining hub.” ...read more read less