Many countries abroad view Australian culture as quite defined and unique, well-known for our accent, drop-bears and bunnings snags, but for Australians with an inward gaze, our culture can be best described as a melting pot of various cultures from around the globe. Beginning with our first nations people, through to the British convicts and settlers, and in more recent years, migrants from Asia, North & South America, Africa and Europe, Modern Australia truly is, as is asserted in our anthem, a land of many.
The question is; how can we come together to share, celebrate and learn about this medley of cultures?
Luckily for Launceston, World Street Eats provides us the opportunity to taste food from around the globe each month, all from the comfort of Civic Square.
Event owners, Amr Elsayed and Madi Biggelaar, took over ownership of the event a year ago, bringing it back to life after COVID-19 caused widespread issues for events all over the globe.
“As a migrant myself, I am extremely passionate about connecting migrants to our local culture and also showcasing the incredible diversity that we have here in Tasmania” Said Amr.
“There’s no better way to share culture than food”
Since taking over the festival, Amr and Madi have increased the number of stallholders, aiming to have representation from as many different cultures as possible, as well as providing a variety of entertainment to draw in a crowd, ensuring they are not only provided with incredible food & drink options, but also entertained throughout their stay.
“We really try and focus on up and coming young artists and musicians, but we also bring in a lot of community organisations”
“We have a couple of stalls that do things for the for the kids is like the face painting and the balloon artist and the henna artist.”
“I guess have something for everybody”.
Running an event of this magnitude is not without its challenges, however, and a key challenge for any food festival is sustainability; a challenge which is being met with tenacity by the World Street Eats team, who have partnered with Golden Brown Composting, a local composting business that works with local food businesses to utilise food waste in a positive way.
Environmental concerns are not the only sustainability issue, Amr explained. For anyone migrating to a new country, the change can be overwhelming, and difficult to adjust to. For most Australian-born citizens, being able to obtain all the council permits, insurances and licences would be hard work, let alone doing so when English is not your first language.
“I think a lot of times it’s navigating the I guess, bureaucracy of our systems. And while it’s all in place for very good reason, as a migrant it’s hard to navigate through that without having someone to help you” added Amr.
“Helping them understand how to be profitable is a really important part of it as well, because starting a new business can be very scary and, helping people with their pricing, helping people with, their menus and stuff like that, it’s something that we are quite passionate about.”
“One of the key things for us when we’re setting up our stallholder list for the month is we make sure that there’s no stall that is competing with the other and that way everyone succeeds rather than sort of, steal business from one another. So we try and make sure that if you are coming on board, we set you up for success.”
World Street Eats is held on the 3rd Sunday of each month in Civic Square from 11am-3pm and are currently accepting new stallholders.
For more information visit worldstreeteats.com.au
