A chance to satisfy culinary tastes of all types will be offered this weekend when the “Food Truck Rodeo” is planned at Veterans Memorial Park in Mount Airy.
“This will be new for us,” President Doug Joyner of the park governing board said Wednesday of its first-ever foray into the food truck phenomenon that’s becoming increasingly popular, featuring items cooked, prepared and sold from motorized vehicles at festivals.
“I think we’re going to have at least 12 trucks out there,” added Joyner, who along with serving as park president is commander of local American Legion Post 123, co-owner of the park with Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2019.
The food truck gathering is scheduled Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the park on West Lebanon Street as a fundraiser for that facility. It has been hard-hit by COVID-19, including the cancellation of one major event normally held there and the possibility of another, which provide proceeds to support its operation.
Among the vendors slated to offer their wares during the weekend are the Mayberry Pork Chop Trailer, with items including pork chops, barbecue and chicken tenders; the Ice Shack, with ice cream, shaved ice and frozen drinks; Poppy’s Concessions (funnel cakes and fried Oreos); Cowboy Salsa (fresh-made salsa); Station 78 Firehouse (roasted peanuts); Duck Donuts; and more.
The list also will include trucks offering fish sandwiches, hot dogs, hamburgers, slushies and various other dessert items.
While this weekend’s event officially is known as the Veterans Park Drive-In Food Truck Rodeo, Joyner said customers can walk up to the trucks to order. In an effort to accommodate those who want to dine on-site along with patrons who prefer to pick up items and leave, picnic tables will be placed on the park grounds.
“We’re going to try to enforce the social distancing as much as we can,” Joyner said of plans to provide proper spacing of trucks, tables and other facets of the gathering.
Attendees are encouraged to wear face masks, and a hand-sanitizer station will be in place.
The Food Truck Rodeo originally was scheduled for June 27-28, but postponed due to pandemic-related restrictions imposed by the Mount Airy Police Department.
“It was just not the best time,” Billy Noah, another event organizer, explained at that time, when organizers had hoped that the food truck festival could be held later in conjunction with restrictions being somewhat eased.
An annual fiddlers convention staged in June at Veterans Memorial Park was cancelled, with plans for the county fair there in September still uncertain, a fair official said Wednesday.
Other gatherings have been scheduled to help take up the financial slack, including an auction at the park last Sunday that was deemed “a huge success” by one organizer and this weekend’s food truck festival.
A GoFundMe campaign also has been launched to aid the park.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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