New Westminster boarded the food truck bandwagon last weekend, and the community's response was overwhelming, to say the least.
"It was amazing. I think we were all pretty blown away by the attendance that we had," said Maddi McKitrick, program and events coordinator for the Downtown Business Improvement Association.
The association had hoped to reach its "hoop dream" of 10,000 people but was blown away by early estimations of about 15,000 to 20,000 people.
"We feel like we basically doubled what we expected and that's huge. We're really pleased," she said.
The Columbia StrEAT Food Truck Festival, held on Aug. 10, was the first of its kind for the Royal City and a huge success for the Downtown Business Improvement Association - the only "problem" that arose was that no one expected such a large turnout, McKitrick said.
"The trucks also didn't anticipate that ,and a few of them ran out of food earlier than we would have liked, but I mean you can't gauge that," she said.
Both organizers and the food trucks that attended didn't predict what a hit the event would be. The association would have been pleased with 10,000 people filling Columbia Street between Fourth and Sixth streets, McKitrick said.
"Needless to say it was all a little bigger than anticipated," she added.
This year's festival included 15 food trucks, beer gardens and live entertainment, all within two blocks. The event ran from 3 to 9 p.m., which McKitrick said helped draw attention to the local nightlife.
"All our pubs and restaurants - given it was a3 to 9 p.m. event - were packed. We got a ton of business from (the festival), because after you eat you want to go and enjoy some live entertainment and have a drink or two," she said.
The festival hours were an important decision for the association, McKitrick said. Organizers wanted to offer something slightly different than the longstanding Show and Shine, which runs midday. "We kind of wanted to try a different angle, and maybe a different demographic, and make it more of a street festival where we could have beer gardens and kind of go into the night, and from there it helps promote our nightlife," she explained.
The association - which McKitrick said has received nothing but compliments on the festival - is optimistic the success of its first food truck festival has paved the way for an annual festival, and if that's the case, McKitrick said they will definitely plan for more people next year.
"We got to try to get more trucks," she said. "Next year, we'd love to do it bigger."
Contributed, The Record / Hungry: Between 15,000 and 20,000 people showed up for the Columbia StrEAT Food Truck Festival last weekend.;
