If you follow along on Instagram or Snapchat, you may have caught that I attended the Louisville Craft Beer and Food Truck Festival over the weekend. I wanted to share the delicious foods I got to try as well as five tips to help you dominate your next food festival!
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I first heard about this festival through Facebook & was so thrilled when the organizer, Food Truck Festivals of America (FTFA), invited me out for the day. FTFA travels around the country each year and organizes these festivals so that local communities can come out and discover the different food truck vendors that are already local to them. If you’re near Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Rochester, New York, Princeton, Massachusetts, or Asheville, North Carolina – there’s still time to buy tickets to your local 2017 festival!
For their first go round here in Louisville, they had 25 different food trucks and 20 different craft beer vendors + one wine vendor too. I sampled from POLLO, Longshot Lobsta, and the Louisville Dessert Truck before I was too full to eat. I also tried the rosè wine from Tiamo Wine since I’m not a beer drinker.
So without further ado, here are my top five tips for making the most out of your visit to a food festival.
How to Get Your Money’s Worth at a Food Festival | Map Out What You Want to Try Beforehand
One of the first things I did after I got my tickets was to look at the full list of vendors and make a list of what and where I wanted to eat. After I made my choices, I was so ~kind~ as to let my friend that went with me check out my choices. Still, once we got there on Sunday, we made a quick loop to check out all the scents, menus, and to get a feel of what trucks may sell out quickly.
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How to Get Your Money’s Worth at a Food Festival | Get There Early
Like I mentioned, while most vendors spend a ton of time prepping for these festivals, it’s still very likely that some will sell out. If at all possible, arrive early so that you can try everything you’re interested in! We snagged VIP passes from FTFA, which allowed us to enter the festival an hour early on top of a free dessert, $1 off alcohol tickets, and free water throughout the food festival. When the festival opened to general admission, my friend and I both said, “Yep! It was worth it!”
The extra hour really let us scout things out, figure out where to find everything and even snag a table to eat at in the shade.
How to Get Your Money’s Worth at a Food Festival | Bring Cash
Y’all I never carry cash & as we were driving downtown started to freak out about not having any cash on me. While most of the trucks had Square so that they could accept credit and debit cards, the alcohol tent’s was not working. Luckily, there was an ATM on site, but definitely be sure to get cash beforehand to avoid paying ridiculous ATM fees!
How to Get Your Money’s Worth at a Food Festival | Split Plates + Order Small Sizes
You won’t see a ton of appetizer size entrees or kids options so my advice to you is to split plates whenever possible. Neither of us ate before we got to the food festival and almost immediately we decided to each order a huge chicken dish for each of us from POLLO. While it was absolutely delicious {#noregrets}, as soon as I finished my gyro I knew I wasn’t going to be able to eat a ton more. When picking your food festival partner in crime make sure it’s someone with similar taste to you. This means that you can easily go halves on entrees and that you’ll be able to sample a little more.
How to Get Your Money’s Worth at a Food Festival | Wear Comfortable Clothing + Shoes
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This one seems like common sense, but you’d be surprised what people were wearing. We lucked out and got crazy warm weather so I was super glad I went with a comfy pair of shorts and a tee {check the post above to see}. Wear something that you’re comfortable eating a ton in and not worried about getting dirty. {Worth noting, with it being in the high 80s, I was a sweaty mess by the time we left and I also got ice cream sandwich and then a strawberry popsicle all over myself. Oops!} And of course, wear shoes that you’re comfortable walking in; I went with my favorite {and most comfortable} pair of Nike sneakers.
I am a major foodie so I love food festivals! This is awesome!
Me too! This was the first one here so it was so much fun to attend!
Thanks for the information really helpful definitely will be there next year September 16th 2018 they’re already booked. And it’s marked on my calendar LOL.
Thanks for the information, will definitely be there next year September 2018. They’ve already booked for next year. And my calendar is marked. See you then.
I saw! I definitely want to go and can’t wait to see what different trucks they bring!
Great tips! I follow all of these when heading out to a local festival. I have to get there early, because I can’t deal with the crowds and comfy clothes are a must!
I’m the same way about crowds! 🙅🏽
Yaaaas girl! I always tell people to get there early, and they act like I’m crazy. But they are the same ones who show up two hours before it’s over and is complaining that the vendors are out of food : \ I always carry cash when I’m at food festivals too. Splitting and sharing plates is a must.
P.S. Pollo is the bomb dot com. I’m so sad they are in Louisville and not in Lexington.
Yeah apparently they stopped letting people in closer to the end and then ran out of beer which people were upset about. Going early is definitely the way to go! It was my first time trying POLLO and I’ll definitely be hunting them down now haha. So yummy.
We have food truck festivals all the time in Manayunk (part of Philly). It’s true that if you get there toward the end, everything is sold out! Love that they had wine!
Oh how fun! I grew up and interned in DC and the food truck scene there was a lot bigger than here but I loved it!
Mmmmmmmmm Food Festivals! These are some of our favorite occasions to chow down in public. Thanks for sharing your tips!
They’re so much fun and who doesn’t love food trucks?!
OMG whatever that tzaziki pita thing is making me starving! I love food festivals, great tips.
It was delicious!!! You could add various sauces ok but I went plain with the sauce and it was perfect! Already excited to go back next year haha.