FOOD TRUCK FESTIVAL
ValleyCats host first-ever Food Truck Festival at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium
TROY, N.Y. » There was food and family fun on the field at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium Saturday afternoon. The Tri- City ValleyCats hosted their first-ever Food Truck Festival.
“So myself and one of my co-workers, Elyse Zima, had a vision about a year ago and said ‘ hey, you know what, we want to do a food truck festival on the field, it would be a good way to engage the community, get our fans out,’” ValleyCats Food and Beverage Manager Missy Henry said of how the idea for the food truck festival came about.
“There were [fans] always asking how can we go on the field? So we’ve been a year in the works; we’ve talked to a lot of our friends, our partners here, different food trucks in the community and said ‘ hey what do you think?’ We got everybody here, Skeeter Creek was kind enough to be our band for the day and it kind of all just came together. It’s just another way the ValleyCats can kind of connect with their fans and provide a good experience,” Henry continued.
Organizers said they were glad that they were able to pull the event off this year.
“It’s so awesome, especially on the food truck side being a chef and that being my background, seeing them out here and get to connect with the community, us getting to connect with them, it’s just awesome that everybody
"So myself and one of my coworkers, Elyse Zima, had a vision about a year ago and said ‘hey, you knowwhat, wewant to do a food truck festival on the field." — ValleyCats Food and Beverage Manager Missy Henry
can come together and just make people happy, make them smile,” Henry added of bringing the community and vendors together.
Among the vendors were Slidin’ Dirty, Muddaddy Flats, Bootleggers On Broadway, Curvy Girls Food Truck & Catering, Livin’ the Dream Food Cart, Kona Ice, The Chuck Wagon, and Siena Street Eats, serving up great local eats.
Tim Taney, owner of Slidin’ Dirty, which sponsors the ValleyCats, also spoke to how the event came together.
“We’ve been a sponsor for the ValleyCats for a few years now, we’ve sponsored their stolen base promo. So we’ve had that relationship for a while. We’ve sponsored a couple of other things for them over the years, and they approached us before this season about our thoughts on a food truck festival here and we thought it would be a great idea. Fortunate for us, we were available on that day, so here we are,” Taney said.
Like Henry, Taney says he hopes to see this festival become an annual summer staple in the future.
“I hope so, I think there’s a good amount of food trucks in this area, but not a whole lot of food truckspecific events, so I think this venue is perfect, who wouldn’t want to be out here on a professional baseball field at a food truck festival with a great band? I think it’s a no brainer that this should work,” Taney added.
Another food truck on hand was Siena College, which was also handing out beach balls for kids to play with on the outfield grass.
“We found out about the event through our marketing department; I decided to ask our admissions department to join us so that we could promote Siena College and our brandnew food truck wrap. It’s newly branded. We’re doing gourmet stuffed grilled flatbreads and we’re doing hand-rolled fried ice cream,” Senior Director of Dining Services AVI Food Systems Rachel Jones said of how Siena got involved.
“It’s amazing, it’s absolutely amazing, we’re excited to see the community and hopefully get some future Saints,” Jones added of seeing people come out for the fun-filled event.