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The Ramadan Nights food market has become a Western Sydney institution during the holy month of Ramadan. More than one million Sydneysiders flock to Lakemba’s eat street – Haldon Street – after dark to enjoy an abundant array of halal dishes from a range of different Muslim cultures to break fast. While the month-long event has its way of bringing the Muslim community together, and sharing the Islam religion with the rest of Sydney, Canterbury-Bankstown Council and Muslim leaders have some concerns with how big the event has grown.
Their concerns boil down to: the sheer size of the event causing congestion, the event commercialising a holy tradition, and the costliness of the event (it cost the council $3 million dollars this year).
So, there was a unanimous vote by councillors to implement four changes to the markets from 2025 onwards. These changes are:
- Moving stalls from the footpaths to the road;
- This means that instead of stallholders paying local businesses $6,000 total to rent out the space at the front of the restaurant for the whole month, they will pay $600 per night to the council;
- Renaming the event from ‘Ramadan Nights, Lakemba’ to ‘Lakemba Nights’ to separate the increasingly commercial event from the Islamic tradition of Ramadan;
- Reducing the number of days the stall is run from seven nights a week to four (Thursday to Sunday). This equals less nights for council staff and contractors to work and be paid, helping reduce costs.
At the moment, the changes are only proposed, and the community can still have their say by heading to this council page.
You can find out more about Lakemba's Ramadan Nights markets (and last year's edition) here.
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