Every festival has a host of behind-the-scenes volunteers who make it successful. One of those at A Taste of Edmonds is Ed Shields.Known as the go-to guy, Shields is always available with duct tape in hand and a hammer in his back pocket. He comes prepared, having accumulated enough knowledge to teach anyone how to run a successful event that visitors return to annually.

Shields’ work is just one example of the coordinated effort it takes to put on A Taste of Edmonds, a three-day celebration of culinary creativity presented by the Edmonds Chamber of Commerce, this year running Aug. 13-15.

What the public never sees is a heck of a lot of work.
-It takes 36 hours to get A Taste of Edmonds up and running, and less than eight hours to take it down.
– The facilities committee installs 6,200 square feet of carpet behind food vendor booths and in the entertainment
areas of A Taste of Edmonds.
– The Taste generates all of its own electricity without using any city power or landlines. It takes 600
kilowatts to power up the entire event.
– Committee members run about three miles of electrical cable to power vendor booths.
– Food booths at A Taste of Edmonds require 400 feet of water lines.
– There is so much garbage generated at the festival that it has never been weighed. “Waste Warriors,” a group
from Edmonds-Woodway High School, clean up continuously during the weekend and haul it all away at the end
of the three-day event.
– To cut down on dust and block behind the scenes action, the facilities committee hangs 300 tarps for the weekend.

For more information, visit the Edmonds Chamber of Commerce website at www.EdmondsWA.com