Mohammed Zarqa has been selling his Palestinian dessert at Lakemba Nights for the past 14 years and welcomes a reform he says has saved stallholders thousands of dollars.
Considered as Australia’s largest cultural festival, the month-long event held during Ramadan has been attracting more people every year to Haldon Street in Sydney’s west, where they can feast on treats like camel burgers and Kashmiri tea.
But along with its rising popularity — about 1 million people were in attendance this year — City of Canterbury Bankstown Council has been trying to manage the markets’ financial future.
An estimated 1 million people attended this year’s Lakemba Nights. (AAP: Flavio Brancaleone)
For Mr Zarqa, who also runs stalls at Rozelle and Barangaroo, the street fair is one of Sydney’s best.
“A lot of tourists from all over the world, when they come to Sydney they see on social media Ramadan night markets and they come to Lakemba,”
Mr Zarqa said.
“I ask a lot of people ‘Where you from?’ A guy said ‘I’m from America’ another said ‘I’m from England’, ‘I’m from Ireland’ … and a lot of people come from all over New South Wales.”
Mr Zarqa said the recent change, where fees for the more than 60 stalls have dramatically dropped and were payed to council rather than local businesses, was the “right” decision and “more professional”.
Previously, he told the ABC, stallholders were paying anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000 to secure a spot in front of shops.
Mr Zarqa says the change to how fees are collected is the “right” decision. (Supplied: City of Canterbury Bankstown Council)
Mr Zarqa was one of the lucky ones, avoiding the charge as his younger brother owned a shop on the strip, but for other vendors he described the amount as “big money”.
Now, stallholders have told him they would save money — which the government estimates was about $20,000 — and it was a “better idea”.
Moving on from period of ‘touch-and-go’
City of Canterbury Bankstown Council embarked on restructuring its relationship with stallholders and other aspects of the food bazaar under a NSW government initiative aimed at bringing down the costs of running community street festivals.
John Graham, Minister for the Arts and the Night-Time Economy, said it was amazing to see how popular the nights had become and to know its financial longevity was secured after a period of “touch-and-go”.
“They [Lakemba Nights] were really struggling to put that festival on as cost pressures rose,” Mr Graham said.
“And this program’s worked with the council and really succeeded in cutting those costs quite dramatically for stallholders and also for the event.”
More than 60 stallholders line Lakemba’s Haldon Street during the annual event. (Supplied: City of Canterbury Bankstown Council )
Buying portable road safety barriers and having pop-up marquees were among the other changes put in place.
The significance of these reforms, Mr Graham said, meant that costs would now be a “one-off” and any savings would be put back into the event.
“Plans that need to be put in place often, those would be the same even if you’re doing the same event in the same place year after year.
“You have to pay those costs time after time, Instead we’re moving having those be one-off costs, get it right the first time and provided there hasn’t been a problem you should be able to roll on.”
It’s a benefit also recognised by Mayor of City of Canterbury Bankstown Bilal El-Hayek.
‘[It] means we can reduce costs by reusing these installations at other events,” Mr El-Hayek said in a statement.
“We have a huge multicultural community living in our City and it’s great to see the Government working with Council to ensure we can continue to deliver events which bring people together.“
‘It’s made a big difference’
Similar outcomes have been reported by 16 other councils involved in the Permit/Plug/Play pilot grant scheme.
“On average the costs were coming down by two thirds, that’s a great result,” Mr Graham said.
“That’s money going back to businesses or directly cutting the cost, meaning many of these events were free for the community, so it’s made a big difference.
“We know this works for businesses. Where these events are held businesses will often double their trade so it’s really a great thing to do.”
Mr Graham says councils that have taken part in the Permit/Plug/Play pilot grant scheme have seen benefits. (ABC News: Greg Bigelow)
A new round of funding under the program is offering up to $500,000 to 24 local councils.
Mr Zarqa has big expectations that next year’s event will be the biggest to date as the new Metro is due to be operating by then.
“More people will come and it’s good fun … [there will be] more lighting and more services for people.”
