'It's all about the food': Taste of Calgary kicks off with almost 90 vendors

The grills are fired up in anticipation of hungry guests at this year's Taste of Calgary, which runs for five days over the August long weekend.

The event is in its 26th year and chefs and foodies alike can't wait for this year's edition.

"Taste of Calgary is sampling menus from local restaurants that you might not go to or think of, or order from," said Jennifer Rempel, event producer.

"This way, you can come, have a little sample size, not fully invest, invest a little bit, see if you like it, see if you don't and explore new restaurant opportunities."

Rempel says this year's vendors include a mix of old and new from restaurants, brewers, distillers and food trucks.

"They're in it for exposure. They want your choice the next time you order delivery, the next time you're going out for dinner. They want to reach new audiences," she said.

"Even though you do have to pay for the food, it's free to get in and so, you can come and just hang out here all day and listen to live music and have a great time and sample a little or sample a lot."

This is the ninth year Rob Garraway and his team from the Canadian Brewhouse have attended the festival.

Garraway is a managing partner in the business and looks forward to this event every year.

"You know, it's about the food," he said.

"Now, we're doing the cocktails and able to really put it in front of the whole community of Calgary, so it's well worth it, for sure."

Naomi Wickes, a server with the Canadian Brewhouse, is serving at the massive event for the first time.

"It's so nice, watching everybody," she said.

"Seeing what food they're eating, I want to eat everything right now. Watching all of the people walk by, yeah, (it) makes me hungry."

Emmanuel Guardado is the owner of Que Chivo Salvadorian Street Food and learned from last year's festival not to be short of mangoes.

He underestimated how popular the fruit on a stick would be and quickly went through 2,800.

"This year, we started with 5,000 mangoes. They're all ripe, they're all fresh and they're all ready to go," he said.

Guardado says he has another 2,000 on standby so he doesn't run out this year.

Chaney Thach is from Calgary and attending the festival with friends.

On Thursday, they were all taking photos of the food they were buying and tasting.

Thach has some tips for budding food photographers.

"Honestly, it's good lighting. Make sure it's crisp and focused," she said.

"And make sure that the food is Moorish, it's dripping or it's saucy. Like with the mango, it's something you don't always see, so I think that's why people gravitate toward that dish and it's good, it has to look good, it has to taste good."

Earthware Reusables is on-site working with five vendors to supply reusable food containers.

Petrina Driscoll is showing staff how to scrape food scraps off the plastic dishes and put them into a bin to be sanitized, so they can be used over and over again.

"This weekend alone, we're hoping to keep 15,000 takeout containers from the landfill," Driscoll said.

"Right now in Alberta, there's 450 million takeout containers in landfills in one year, so we've been in the community for about two years now and we've saved about 30,000 containers."

Taste of Calgary runs Thursday, Aug. 3, through Monday, Aug. 7, in Parking Lot #6 at 311 8 St. S.W., near the Louise Bridge on the south side of the Bow River.

Rempel has a few recommendations for guests.

"I would come for lunch on Thursday or Friday, scope the environment out, maybe try a couple things, look at the menu, decide maybe what you're going to come back for," she said.

"Then I would come back at night on Saturday but make it early, like around four o'clock and then spend the evening here. So I would come twice because there's no way you can eat your way through this festival in one visit."