Reasoning Explained for Edelyn Exhibition Move

-Marina del Rey, CA
-"Thanksgiving, meet Halloween."

That's what Feast Fest Event Mgr. William Vanderbilt joked to laughs early Sunday, confirming about 12 hours of rumors that the final FF exhibition of the season at Edelyn Cooking Arena in Punta Gorda, FL, would be moved from Tuesday, November 8 to Monday, October 31.

Vanderbilt said that a nearby office building would be undergoing "heavy construction" that would begin October 24 and require usage of the Edelyn parking lot and the Edelyn kitchen floor to house over a thousand construction workers. The project will end November 15 and the only weekday that the project will not take place is October 31. The project will take place Saturday, October 29, and not Sunday, October 30, but Vanderbilt explained why the Oct. 30 date would not work.

"They [officials at Edelyn] will need at least a day to convert the cooking arena from its hostel-like state to its normal cooking state, so that eliminated the possibility of the Oct. 30 date being used. They offered up a Nov. 17 date also, but this will not work because it is too close to Thanksgiving and all the exhibitions need to be over and all the chefs here in the Marina by that time."

So Halloween it must be.

"We know this throws a monkey wrench into the personal agendas of all the chefs, and we apologize to them for that," said Vanderbilt. "But I'm afraid it's our only option."

Some chefs said they would consider bringing their children to the exhibition, not wanting to not be with them on the holiday.