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In an interview, Shafaee said he is aware that some vendors who took part in the Ottawa Wine and Food Festival were dissatisfied with their experience.

“They never made any money, it was hard for them to staff,” Shafaee said. “The costs were high, people weren’t showcasing their product.

“We’ve tried to change that model and make sure the restaurants are able to make their money back ,” Shafaee says. His event’s priority is to enable the vendors to have meaningful interactions with attendees so that the attendees will visit the restaurants after the festival, he added.

He added that he hopes to attract about 7,000 people paying $20 to $25 each to the April event, and perhaps double that number for a larger follow-up festival in November. Attendees would also have to buy tickets to sample the wares of vendors.

The long-running Ottawa Wine and Food Festival took place at the Shaw Centre during the first half of the 2010s and drew as many as 25,000 attendees in its prime. But the relationship between that festival and the Shaw Centre soured over financial issues and incidents of over-drinking and rowdiness, and the festival moved to the EY Centre in 2016 and 2017.

That festival was not held in 2018 or 2019, although its organizer maintained each year that the event would return the following year after being “re-imagined.”

Shafaee said he and his partners are taking steps to prevent or manage drinking to excess by attendees.

“We’ll have a strong plan in place to manage the intoxication and security side,” he said.