Greenway Mobile Food Fest Kaput for Now

The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy has postponed Saturday’s Mobile Food Fest, partly due to the ongoing Occupy Boston live-in on Dewey Square. With the large trucks, protesters, and attendees expected for the event, the area “would simply be too crowded to be considered safe for the public,” the non-profit group said in a statement yesterday. (Don’t fret, street food fanatic: You can still get your food truck ya-yas out this Sunday with BBQ Smith, Bon Me, Roxy’s Gourmet Grilled Cheese, and the rest of the gang at the SoWa Market. And, the Suffolk Downs Food Truck Fest is next weekend.)

Some commenters on Universal Hub questioned the move. “You know why they cancelled the food truck festival? Because they didn’t want people to come and see the protesters,” quipped one anonymous commenter. (We’ve all been inundated with coverage of the protesters in local, national, and international media outlets. I don’t think the Greenway Conservancy is keeping them from us.)

It comes down to space and logistics. The Boston Public Market Association has also called off two events: Terry Walther’s cookbook signing on Oct. 13 and the Pumpkin Festival on Oct. 18. According to the market’s Facebook page:

“The protests have been peaceful, but access to the market has been hard on our vendors — so please be sure to come down to the market to support them.”

Occupy Boston has the right to protest on Dewey Square (here’s hoping they all have umbrellas in today’s downpour), but it’s a shame that free speech has to come at the expense of small business owners.