Special Event

Main Street Food Truck Festival expands options

Hungry people fill downtown for the Main Street Food Truck Festival, where 60 food trucks dish up foods to fit every taste.
Hungry people fill downtown for the Main Street Food Truck Festival, where 60 food trucks dish up foods to fit every taste.

UPDATE: The food truck festival on Thursday was moved to Sunday because of weather.

So, Dad feels like barbecue. Mom wants a gourmet sandwich. The kids just want burgers.

On Saturday in Little Rock, there's no need for families to make unpopular compromises or run all over town trying to satisfy incompatible taste buds. Instead, they can take a trip to the Main Street Food Truck Festival and make everybody happy.

Main Street Food Truck Festival

11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Main Street from Third to Eighth streets and Capitol Avenue from Main to Spring streets, Little Rock

Admission: Free

(501) 375-0121

mainstreetfoodtruck…

As Anderson Penix, communications director for the Downtown Little Rock Partnership, explains, "The Main Street Food Truck Festival is basically going to a big outdoor cookout with 40,000 of your favorite friends."

This is the eighth year for the festival, in which 60 food trucks camp out in an area that stretches along several blocks of Main Street and Capitol Avenue, all selling a wide variety of fare to satisfy a multitude of cravings.

When it started back in 2011, Penix says, "Downtown Little Rock Partnership wanted a way to bring people to Main Street. There wasn't a whole lot of activity going on at that time. Food trucks were just getting more popular, so they had that idea."

What started with a "handful" of trucks and a smattering of people has since exploded into five dozen trucks and 40,000 people eating their way along Main Street and Capitol Avenue.

He says, "It's really supported by the community."

And it's not just food trucks. Heifer International will once again bring its urban farm with animals and games. And this year Riceland is setting up a family zone with games and a tented eating area.

The entertainment will be as varied as the food with busker performances stretching along the whole length of the festival.

This year the festival will beef up its arts and crafts area with a marketplace set up to accommodate more local vendors.

Penix says, "You can get your Christmas shopping done at the Main Street Food Truck Festival."

Those who want some vicarious thrills can snag food and drinks and then camp out at the festival's southern end, where the Arkansas State Criterium Championships -- a speed cycling event -- will "whoosh" on by.

The race may make things more complicated with extra street closures -- so Penix recommends anyone coming to the festival via Interstate 630 take the Interstate 30 exchange, then exit on Sixth Street or Second Street.

Parking decks throughout the area will be open, with the closest decks at Scott and Sixth streets, where parking will be free, and Second and Main streets, where it will not.

Regardless, there should be space and parking for everyone who wants to come out.

Penix says, "If you have any interest in food or local craft beer or music or art or just community involvement -- and that should be everybody -- come on out and experience one of the best culinary festivals that Arkansas produces."

Weekend on 09/06/2018

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