Ian Duncan The festival is postponed until October.

A $29 ticket for this Saturday’s East Village Eats food festival would have got buyers a taste of 12 neighborhood restaurants as well as discount drinks and theater tickets, but there were few takers. Organizer Fourth Arts Block decided yesterday to push the event back to October, and will try to drum up more interest in the meantime.

Tamara Greenfield, Fourth Arts Block’s executive director, said that fewer than 100 tickets had been sold. The first East Village Eats, held last October, saw more than 400 foodies nibble their way around the neighborhood.

“We felt it would be more damaging to go forward with an unsuccessful event,” than to reschedule for the fall, Ms. Greenfield said.

Jimmy Carbone, owner of Jimmy’s No. 43 a restaurant and bar on East Seventh Street, helped to organize the festival. In an e-mail message he said that there were a number of competing events this weekend and that without sufficient advance ticket sales, the festival could not serve its purpose of raising money for Fourth Arts Block.

Tickets will still be good for a free happy hour this Saturday at Idle Hands on Avenue B and a small Mud coffee at the FAB Cafe on East Fourth Street. The full event will now be held on October 22 but restaurant owners lined up for this weekend have not yet confirmed their involvement.
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