This festival started in Parramatta’s back lanes. Now it’s taken over the whole city

When Parramatta launched a plan to host a series of pop-up events and cafes in its tiny laneways in 2012, attendance was low and the suburb was derided as “Paris-matta” .

Now, more than a decade later, the pop-up events have ballooned, taking over whole city streets and attracting hundreds of thousands of people. Attendance at Parramatta Lanes, Sydney’s largest street festival, has grown by more than 180 per cent in six years.

And there’s one reason it’s been so successful: TikTok. The City of Parramatta, which runs the event in-house, focuses on analysing viral food trends on the social media app and recruiting some of the world’s biggest influencers to the festival.

This year, two of the most sought-after stalls at the festival – running until Saturday night – have been western Sydn