Taste of Syracuse vendors prepare for rain
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — The unofficial start to summertime in Syracuse is right around the corner. Day one of the Taste of Syracuse kicks off at 11 a.m. Friday morning.
'When I first started doing it, they would have five, ten thousand people…now, it's well over 200,000…it's just insane,' Robin Casper, the only alcoholic vendor, said.
Codi Lisi, owner of Punch'd, said every year draws in more and more eclectic crowds.
'…to see, in the last couple of years, everybody just kind of comes together,' Lisi said. 'Rain or shine, hot or overcast…just to watch everybody from the community come out in every different form.'
But with rain in the forecast, vendors came prepared with their weather gear a day before the festival.
'Even the littlest bit of rain isn't going to do anything…at least from anybody that I've talked to that's venturing out here,' he said. 'So, we're ready, no big deal, we're good to go.'
Zach Marji, owner of Fair Deli and Chocolate Taps, spent his afternoon attaching walls of tarp to his tents in preparation.
'Rain is going to happen one way or the other, whether we like it or not,' Marji said. 'We're stocking up with raincoats and we're just going to give it the best we can.'
As for manning nine different tents that sell exclusively alcohol, Casper said he is ready for whatever comes his way because he has been at the Taste for over 25 years.
'Well, we serve alcohol! So…you just kind of roll with it,' he said. 'You can't predict the weather. It is what it is.'
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