Thousands flock to Queen Victoria Market to celebrate street fest

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AFTER a year of preparations, Malaysia Street Festival 2011 has become a reality.

Organised by Alive Group and supported by Vision Malaysia, the festival has become an annual community event that unites Malaysians in Melbourne, drawing thousands to Queen Victoria Market, a famous heritage-listed Melbourne landmark.

Despite two showers and with temperatures dipping, the crowd kept filling up the market. An estimated crowd of 7,000 passed the heart of Victoria Market and stopped by throughout the day.

Good turnout: Crowds filling up the heart of Queen Victoria Market

Malaysians, Melbournians, Singaporeans, Indonesians, Indians, Vietnamese, international tourists, interstate visitors and international students all had a taste and glimpse of the Malaysian multicultural society and they even experienced a day in the life of a local Malaysian.

The festival showcased 12 food stalls which brought the best of Malaysian cuisine from restaurants around Melbourne.

There were also other stalls selling clothing and handicraft together with interactive activities organised by Mecca and Peranakan Group that kept the crowd enticed.

The event which started at 9am, was launched by councillor Ken Ong who represented the city of Melbourne.

Stall owners sold satay, nasi lemak, ice kacang, mee kolok, prawn noodles, bubur cha cha, teh tarik and laksa Sarawak as well as kek lapis delivered by a Sarawak contingent specially hosted by the organisers.

Most stall owners found that they ran out of food hours before closing time and customers waiting in long queues were disappointed.

Nonetheless, the people were entertained by the performances by the Peranakan Group, Minang Dance Troupe, Roc’cum Melbourne Theatre Company and renditions by Anthony Jolen.

Fashion designers such as Sleek One and Sleep Couture and a special cooking demonstration by Chilli Padi Mamak Kopitiam executive chef Li Teoh enthralled the crowd.

Vision Malaysia managing director Zack Sabry said, “The Malaysia Street Festival is an excellent opportunity to share the culture and food and also to increase business networking between our two countries.”

He added, “We are grateful for the support of the Malaysian and Australian communities living in Melbourne for attending this festival and we hope to have more support next year from the Malaysian government and all those living in Melbourne to participate in making this event a hallmark alongside other festivals of Melbourne.”

“Malaysia Street Festival 2012 will be further improved to incorporate more Malaysian restaurants which will bring in more dishes which are not available in Melbourne.

“In addition, we will seek to extend the event to longer hours to satisfy the hunger of queuing patrons as we plan to have more varieties of food available for sale,” said organiser and managing director of Alive Group Albert Lim.