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Food festival Facebook event invites foodies to claim to, but not actually, attend

Roughly 21,000 Facebook users say they're interested in a event called
Roughly 21,000 Facebook users say they’re interested in a event called “Claim to Be Going to a Food Festival That You Will Never Attend,” allegedly taking place in Times Square on Oct. 6. Photo Credit: Chris Owen

It’s the ideal food festival for the commitment-averse millennial.

Tell your friends you’re going to “Claim to Be Going to a Food Festival That You Will Never Attend” on Facebook, and they won’t expect anything from you.

The event, created on Sept. 21 — and described by one Facebook user as “the most millennial thing ever” — is allegedly set to take place Oct. 6 from 4 to 7 p.m. in Times Square. 

As of Monday evening, 10,000 Facebook users said they’re attending the faux food festival; 21,000 said they’re “interested.”

Event creator Daniel Lutsker, 22, told amNewYork he was inspired by the mercurial habits of his own Facebook friends, who “constantly click ‘Going’ or ‘Interested’ on food festival events that [he] knew they had no plans to attend.”

“This event was a funny, passive-aggressive way of confronting them about it,” he said. 

That sentiment has resonated with other Facebook users, many of whom have posted invitations to their friends on the ersatz event’s discussion wall.

“Does this timing work for everyone or will y’all be too busy to not attend?” wrote one user.

Others have confessed to seeing themselves in the festival’s flaky parameters: “Finally, an event I can commit to!”

Some have offered insightful commentary on their own social lives.

“Looking forward to not going while still making it seem like I have a life,” said one honest individual.

“It’s gonna be a great day full of various assortments of foods! I can’t wait to stay home and watch Netflix instead!” a self-proclaimed homebody wrote.

The event has inspired jokes riffing on the disastrous New York City Pizza Festival that took place earlier this month in a Bushwick parking lot, where ticket holders found empty tents and few slices.

“I can’t wait to pull up to the $10 parking garage only to realize this was a huge mistake and end up back at home eating the same tired frozen burrito in my bed alone,” one jokester wrote.

“I heard a rumor that they’re having trouble not lining up vendors to not participate,” wrote another. “Anyone else hear this?”

“I heard there’ll be great pizza!” a third chimed in.

Lutsker himself says he’s never planned on attending a food festival, citing steep ticket prices and calamitous examples like last year’s NYC African Food Festival. 

The Bay Ridge resident posted a link on his event’s wall last Friday to a video of someone peeling a banana while a child screams in the background. 

“Opening act for this event,” he labeled it.