NORTHAMPTON — Thousands are expected to visit Main Street downtown on Saturday for a day of food and live music at Taste of Northampton, an annual festival that celebrates the city’s businesses and restaurants.

The event, which returned in 2022 after a long hiatus, is a way for the Downtown Northampton Association and the city of Northampton to bring the community together and attract visitors from around the region to sample what the city has to offer. Last year, the festival drew 12,000 people, and this year the DNA is hoping to top that.

“It is really an opportunity for folks to come and see what our restaurateurs are doing, they are always innovating, they are always doing something new,” said Jillian Duclos, executive director of the DNA. “The vision is bringing restaurants together out on the street ... giving everybody an opportunity to remember that we are all in this together, to get to know one another, and to have a little bit of fun.”

This year’s festival will run from noon to 8 p.m. on Main Street between Old South Street and the intersection of King and Pleasant streets.

It will feature more than 30 local restaurants, breweries and businesses, as well as live music from local performers curated by the Northampton Arts Council starting at 1 p.m.; a beer, wine, and cider garden; and family-friendly activities, including a children’s play area.

Businesses from around Northampton will have stalls at the event, bringing together longstanding restaurants, like Spoleto and Fitzwilly’s, and new entrepreneurs, like Gombo, a Cajun restaurant. The restaurants will have select offerings from their menus, and some are even bringing products they have not launched yet. For instance, Local Burger has been working on a project with a local brewer to make their own beer, which will be available at the festival.

Taste of Northampton originated during the 1990s as a four-day event, and after an 18-year break, returned two years ago as COVID shutdowns were ending. A grant from the state’s Regional Economic Development Organization allowed for the festival’s revival, but this time on a single day.

Duclos said the city and the DNA wanted to find a way to “bring fun back downtown,” said Duclos.

“It has been a hard few years trying to recover from COVID,” she said. “These are our neighbors, these are the parents of our children’s friends at school, this is really our community at its best. And it’s through supporting events like this that we can keep revenue in our community.”

Throughout the event, many Main Street retailers will remain open, so visitors also have the opportunity to shop and explore what they have to offer.

The music stage will feature Hannah Mohan, Avery Joi, Mail Maïz, and DJ REC at the rainbow crosswalk near Thornes Marketplace. Union Station is also bringing its trolley to help shuttle people to the festival.

“Small business is the heart of our community, they’re the foundation, that’s where it all starts,” Duclos said. “This is just a really great time to come celebrate all that our small businesses do for us and show support, and how much we want them to stay and continue to do all the cool things that they do.”