This year’s original date of March 22 was cancelled due to a snowstorm on the first day of spring.
This year’s Taste of Mt. Laurel, originally scheduled for March 22, was cancelled due to a surprising snowstorm on the first day of spring.
Now township officials are hoping that permanently moving the event to early fall will help prevent future snow-related cancellations.
Township Manager Meredith Tomczyk said she would like to see this year’s Taste of Mt. Laurel as the first event to be moved, and with the blessing of Mt. Laurel Township Council, she and township officials are looking to hold the event sometime in October.
Tomczyk said she proposed moving the event to October due to the Taste of Mt. Laurel requiring the use of Harrington Middle School, along with Mt. Laurel Schools having in-service days in October where school would not be in use by students around that time.
“I did take a glance at the school’s calendar, and we always like to have it (Taste of Mt. Laurel) when the schools have an in-service day so we’re not interrupting the kids who have after-school care or any of those programs,” Tomczyk said.
Tomczyk said she suggested a permanent move to October for the event due to this year’s event now being the third year in the last five years where snow or inclement weather has either obstructed the event or caused an outright cancellation.
“A lot of residents come out at night for the event, and we don’t want anybody to slip because of those conditions,” Tomczyk said.
Although Mt. Laurel Fall Festival usually falls on the second or third Saturday of September — it is Sept. 22 this year — Tomczyk said she didn’t see any problem with the events being scheduled close to one another.
“The nice thing about Fall Festival is normally we’re booked before August, so that would give us the whole month of August to work on getting the vendors for October because our amount of vendors basically fills up by July,” Tomczyk said.
The move to October is not the first change for the township’s annual Taste of Mt. Laurel.
The event, which began in 2010, was originally open only to the township’s senior citizens and was held in January at the Mt. Laurel Community Center.
Soon after, the township opened the event to all residents, and the township had to move the event to Hartford School in 2013 to accommodate growing crowds.
The township also moved the event from January to March in 2015, also in an attempt to fight inclement weather and increase crowd sizes.
More than 20 restaurants and local eateries were scheduled to attend this year’s event prior to cancellation, and the township was expecting about 500 residents to attend.
Township officials say the annual event helps introduce residents to new businesses in town, as well as allowing older businesses to promote new menu items and initiatives.
Once officially rescheduled for a specific day later this year, residents can learn more about the 2018 Taste of Mt. Laurel on the township’s website at www.mountlaurel.com under the website’s “News and Events” page.
