47-year-old Paul Skinner had just grabbed drinks for his Filipino food booth staff when gunfire ended his workday and everyone else's at the Bite of Seattle on July 26.

The shooting at about 6 p.m. killed three people and wounded four others, cutting short the final two hours of the festival's last and typically busiest day.

Dozens of food vendors who had staffed up and stocked inventory for the Sunday rush lost their peak sales window instantly.

Hours later, according to the Associated Press, some stood outside police tape wondering when they could retrieve their tents, food, and cooking gear.

The Bite of Seattle, a free-admission festival at Seattle Center's 305 Harrison St. campus in Lower Queen Anne, has run annually since 1982 and draws roughly 350,000 attendees over three days, according to its website.

Hundreds of food, drink, and retail vendors participate.

For vendors already operating on thin margins, the lost hours compound steep costs. Food vendors pay a 21 percent commission on sales to festival operator FoodieLand, a California-based company, according to a vendor presentation shared with FOX 13 Seattle.

Drink vendors pay 29 percent. Craft vendors pay 18 percent. All are required to use the festival's point-of-sale system, which adds processing fees on top.

"Suddenly everything was empty," Roberto Ramirez, a vendor at the festival, told the AP after the shooting. "People were freaked out."

Before the festival opened, Fabiola, owner of Tacos El Yoyo, had told FOX 13 on, July 23 that the event was "a big opportunity" for brand exposure.

She had tried to get a booth for three consecutive years before being accepted in 2025. She estimated only about 15 vendors at the festival were from Seattle. FoodieLand has not responded to media inquiries about whether vendors will receive refunds for the lost final day, according to FOX 13.

Small Rini Lady, a local Asian American artist and returning Bite vendor, told FOX 13 on July 23 that local vendors were already being squeezed before Sunday's violence. "Local is kind of slowly fading out," she said of the festival's vendor mix.

The shooting also shut down the Seattle Monorail on Sunday evening, cutting off the primary transit link vendors would use to return to the Seattle Center campus. It reopened at 7:30 a.m. on July 27.

For the vendors who fled their booths Sunday evening, the immediate question is when they get their equipment back and who absorbs the cost of the food that spoiled behind the police tape.