When does a day last for just 90 minutes?
When it’s the ‘Day Of The Donut’ – Sydney’s one-off doughnut event.
It was two years ago to the day as I post this, an exciting event in the Sydney CBD, with several doughnut makers assembling in the one place offering a feast of doughnuts.
Organisers, Flour Market, could have called it an incredibly successful event, or an abysmal failure – just depends how you look at it.
My plan on that day was to turn up about 10 minutes after opening time, grab a doughnut or two and go home.
I never expected to be greeted with a queue that wound its way around half a block. Hundreds of people were in front of me. My jaw would have dropped if I wasn’t saving it for doughnut eating.
Here is what it says on the Day Of The Donut Facebook page, which inexplicably is still live two years later, complete with complaints and hating from people who queued and missed out:
Day of the Donut does exactly what it says on the packet, a hole day to celebrate those special circular sweet treats that have captured our imaginations and our appetites.
Flour Market has been championing the rise of these doughy delights for more than a minute and there are so many standouts we can’t fit them all. So on Saturday the 30th of July at 1-74 Commonwealth St, Surry Hills we will host Sydney’s holiest rollers from 9am until sold out.
Vendors include:
Brewtown Newtown
Donut Papi
Doughnut Time
Grumpy Donuts
My Donut Box
Nutie
Shortstop
& Woah! Nelly Bakes
Entry is $2 on the door. Kids under 12 free.
A limited number of Early Riser tickets are on sale for $10 (+bf) allowing access 30 minutes before general admission via this link:
There is a link, but I chose not to add it. I mean, what’s the point? (I’m not sure what (+bf) means… Plus BoyFriend? I don’t have one)
The line moved slowly but surely, taking me 40 minutes to enter. I paid my $2 entry fee, which included a box to put your doughnuts in.
The crowded room was small and noisy. It was a struggle to get to the front of a line to even see what doughnuts were being sold. One or two stands had already sold out.
It’s one of those things where if you are made to wait, you order more to justify the waiting. I’m sure that’s why Aldi don’t have express lanes and their checkout operators move like snails on Xanax – it makes people buy more to justify the waiting time. So, I bought six doughnuts instead of the originally planned two. I’m sure others did the same thing, putting an even greater strain on the doughnut supplies.
To be honest, I can’t remember who I bought doughnuts from, but knowing the doughnuts from each of the sellers, I’m fairly confident it was Donut Papi, Short Stop and perhaps My Donut Box. Brewtown was too crowded and I chose not to buy one from Doughnut Time because I could easily get one from their stores.
It really could have been good, but they completely underestimated the response. Sydney has a reputation for poorly run food-related festivals and this one didn’t help. It seems it has been a one-off because there hasn’t been another doughnut event in Sydney since. In fact, it appears that Flour Market doesn’t do the Day Of The Donut anywhere anymore.
I feel that a well-run doughnut event in Sydney would go gang-busters.
Any takers?
DomNuts 