We had a great time at the first (hopefully annual) New England Food Truck Festival on August 1st and 2nd at the Big E fairgrounds in Springfield, Massachusetts. It was a family-friendly affair complete with live music, face painting, beer and hard cider, and food trucks everywhere. 357CD295-5242-45FD-A197-DEC70C701A794C656BD3-23C8-4164-91B9-D45B6FC4B01A

There was quite literally a truck for everyone in attendance. From clam chowder to donuts, from egg rolls to ice cream, the Pioneer Valley had the chance to taste their way across the New England foodscape in one convenient location.

 

Thousands of people were in attendance for the New England Food Festival, proving how successful these kinds of events are for both the community hosting them and the food trucks participating.

These festivals have been hosted across the country from Columbus, Ohio to Los Angeles to Little Rock, Arkansas, proving that a variety of locations are acknowledging the popularity of food trucks.

Just because a festival is planned doesn’t guarantee there’s interest in it, right? The New England Food Festival had several thousand people come through over the course of two days. In general, the interest in food truck festivals can also be seen in search trends over the past few years. You can see from this graph that interest in food truck festivals has doubled in the past year alone.

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A baked potato loaded with pulled chicken and cheddar cheese from Spuds Your Way.

 

There are a few reasons a food truck festival can be great for your business:

  • There’s the obvious: you can net a relatively large profit in just a day or two in one location.
  • Food truck festivals are a great way to introduce new, local customers to your business. Make sure to have your social media information on display so new customers can instantly start following you while they wait for their food.
  • Your food truck will also be noticed by locals not attending the festival who see your business in the festival’s advertising.
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Another great food truck, The Whoo(pie) Wagon, on site at the New England Food Truck Festival.

If you’re a food truck based in the New England area, we definitely suggest you consider attending this the New England Food Truck Festival if they hold it again next year. You can keep up to date with the NEFTF on Facebook and Twitter. 

Have you attended an awesome food truck festival? We want to hear about it – tweet us @FoodOnATruck!