Here’s the lineup of food and music for the Hartford Taste Festival in Constitution Plaza

Susan Dunne, Hartford Courant
·3 min read

The Hartford Taste Festival, a celebration of the city’s restaurants and cultural diversity, will take place June 10 and 11, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day, in Constitution Plaza.

Thirty restaurants will set up tents, each offering a few items from their menus. Guests pay with tokens, purchased at another tent. No cash or cards are accepted at the food tents. At the end of each day, the restaurants will turn in their tokens, take 75% of the proceeds and donate the other 25% to Foodshare Connecticut.

Participating restaurants from Hartford are Wood-n-Tap, Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ, Ital Juicery, La Flor Mix Kitchen, Fornarelli’s, Jamaican Jerk Shack, Juiced Up, Greenway Market, Ranch House Pizza, Terraza Latina, No Pork On Dis Fork, More Than Just Lobster 2, The Corner Cafe, Four Dad’s Pub, The Republic, The Place 2 Be, Dunkin’, Aurora’s, Fire N’ Spice, Disheveled Diva, Hartford Flavor Company, Poke Sushi and Thomas Hooker Brewery.

Also attending are Huasteca of Windsor; Perfect Poundcakes of East Hartford; Cora Cora, Bert’s Pizzeria, Frida and JAR Bar of West Hartford; and NoRA Cupcake of Middletown.

“Bringing fun and activity and joy back needs to be the center of recovery ... for the community as a whole,” Mayor Luke Bronin said. “We need to be alive with that this summer.”

The Hartford Taste Festival is presented by The Hartford. Nineteen musical acts will perform on two stages, presented by Hartford Chamber of Commerce.

Musical lineup on June 10:

Clocktower Stage

12:15 to 1 p.m.: The Sawtelles

1:15 to 2 p.m.: Tracy Walton

3 to 4 p.m.: Tang Sauce

5 to 6 p.m.: The Miles Elliot Experience

6:45 to 7:45 p.m.: Among the Acres

8:30 to 9:30 p.m.: Jake Kulak

Fountain Stage

11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.: Sean O’Reilly

6 to 6:45 p.m. Jah Marley

7:45 to 8:30 p.m.: Tenaya Taylor

Musical lineup on June 11:

Clocktower Stage

12:15 to 1 p.m.: Jessie Scott

1:15 to 2 p.m.: ArleneWow!

3:15 to 4:15 p.m.: Audio Jane

5 to 6 p.m. Jeff Burnham

6:45 to 7:45 p.m.: Nekita Waller

8:30 to 9:30 p.m.: The Penniless Wild

Fountain Stage

11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.: Tracy Norkun

4:15 to 5 p.m.: Ellen Redman

6 to 6:45 p.m.: Kierstin Sieser

7:45 to 8:30 p.m.: Joey Batts

Stanley Black & Decker will give free tours of its Manufacturing 4.0, a 23,000-square-foot workspace that focuses on advanced manufacturing technologies such as robotics.

A cooking contest will be held, sponsored by Whole Foods, on June 11 from 2 to 3 p.m., with competitors Chion Wolf of WNPR, The Rev. Lydell Brown of 224 EcoSpace and Jim Kane of Webster Bank. Geoff Gardner, principle culinary manager of Whole Foods, will judge.

A Cigar Lounge, by Up in Smoke of Cromwell, will be on the premises. Dunkin’ will give out free samples of its new products. A charging station will be available. Pets are welcome.

Susan Dunne can be reached at sdunne@courant.com.