Food Truck Festival rolls in Oct. 2
Sixty food truck vendors are expected to line Main Street in downtown Little Rock on Oct. 2 and the event chairwoman hopes more than 40,000 people will show up with hungry appetites.
The Food Truck Festival, sponsored by the Downtown Little Rock Partnership and the Main Street Revitalization Committee, includes food and other vendors parked on Main Street from between Third and Eighth streets. The 2019 festival — 2020 was canceled due to the covid-19 pandemic — attracted more than 45,000 food-truck fans.
This year marks the 10th Food Truck Festival and Campbell and her team of volunteers have added new features. For the first time, concerts are scheduled; the Rodney Block Collective is the headliner, scheduled to perform at 7 p.m. in the parking lot at the corner of Main Street and Capitol Avenue (the site of the Little Rock wagon mural). Two other bands are scheduled to open for Block.
Becky Barnes Campbell has been a volunteer for the Food Truck Festival for six years. This is her first time to chair the event. As the mother of a 2 1/2-year-old son and
the co-partner of Campbell Ward public affairs firm, she stays busy. But she says she is backed by a great board and support from the Downtown Little Rock Partnership.
Campbell says her favorite aspect of the festival is introducing people to downtown Little Rock who may have “a preconceived notion” about the area.
“I was born and raised in Arkansas. I love it here. So any time I can brag on my state, my city and the great things we are doing here, I absolutely take that chance,” she says.
Campbell and her husband lived downtown for several years before moving to the Park Hill area of North Little Rock before their son was born. Her office is downtown.
“That was the first place that we lived together after we got married so it will always have a very special place in my heart,” she says.
The festival is a fundraising event for the Downtown Partnership through sponsorships and fees paid by vendors. Vendors keep 100% of their sales.
“It is a big fundraising event for them but what is really important is to bring people downtown and really showcase all we have, all the great aspects of not only Central Arkansas but the entire state because we have trucks and vendors that come from all over,” Campbell says.
“If nothing else, if people can come to the festival and have their eyes open to ‘Wow, there’s so much to do down here’ and they keep coming back, that’s really the goal.”
The Downtown Little Rock Partnership began focusing on Main Street’s vacant buildings and boarded up windows more than 10 years ago when the Main Street Revitalization Task Force was formed, according to information on the partnership’s website about the history of the event.
“The Main Street Food Truck Festival was an idea created by the task force as a way to bring people back to Main Street and support Downtown Little Rock Partnership in the process,” the website says. “The Food Truck Festival was one of many great ideas that successfully worked to revitalize Main Street into a bustling, active downtown community.”
The website also listed many awards and honors bestowed on the festival, including Festival of the Year by the Arkansas Festival & Events Association’s ALFIE Award in 2018 and 2019 and being named a Southern Travel Treasure by AAA Southern Traveler in 2017.
The family-friendly event also includes a kids’ zone with games, bounce houses and other activities geared specifically to children and families, Campbell says. This year, the hours of the festival have been extended to 10 a.m.-8 p.m.
Covid-19 vaccinations will be available at the festival. And organizers are working to become a zero-waste event and will compost or recycle as much trash as possible, Campbell says.