This year’s Columbia Street food truck festival is expected to attract even more hungry visitors to the city’s downtown core.
That’s the prediction of Kendra Johnston, executive director of the Downtown New Westminster Business Improvement Area, who says 20,000 people made the trek to Columbia Street last summer to take in some delicious grub and check out the neighbourhood. This year, her conservative prediction is that more than 30,000 will turn up for a flavourful event that is sure to become an annual staple given the huge number of people it attracts.
Along with an increase in attendees, there will also be more culinary options: they are expecting 50 food carts when the event happens on Aug. 23 – a big jump from the 17 they had at last year’s inaugural fest, which proved to be even more popular than Johnston anticipated.
“It’s so easy for anyone to get here, whereas the food truck fests that were happening in Vancouver weekly were not accessible by SkyTrain – you had to take a bus to get there and walk. So this was just an easy way for people to come from anywhere and try out their favourite food trucks,” Johnston says. “One of the reasons we were so successful is that we are right on the SkyTrain line.”
Along with the crowds, last year’s food truck festival brought in food bloggers and Metro Vancouver media, which, she says, drew attention to the city’s burgeoning downtown – an area she describes as the “new New West.”
There was one criticism for last year’s event: the lengthy lineups that kept some waiting too long for a taste.
“If I could have one problem that would be the problem I would take. It was clearly a problem – there were so many more people than we expected,” Johnston says.
It was a challenge to get food trucks on board the first year, but Johnston says they won’t have the same problem this year because last summer was so successful.
“So I think now that we’ve proven ourselves, we’ll be able to get that many more trucks out,” she says, adding they already have 25 lined up for summer.
Her group is also coming up with ways to make the wait times a little more bearable. The plan is to have what Johnston calls “mobile vendors.”
“While people are waiting in line they can buy snacks or drinks … so it’s going to be a little less taxing to wait in the lineup for 20 minutes for food. We are also looking at having some roving entertainment as well, so that it’s a little bit more fun while you are waiting in a line,” she explains.
The business improvement area is also focusing its attention this year on beautifying downtown by working with members to create attractive storefronts and with the city to improve streetscapes. Specifically, Johnston wants to see downtown lit up all year.
“We are hoping to get some more lighting downtown to make nightlife a little more interesting and fun,” she says.
The goal is to have the city keep the white Christmas lights strewn in the trees on Columbia Street all year long, but Johnston says it’s a work in progress because it’s a challenge to maintain the lights longterm because the city needs to prune the trees.
“However, we are hoping, and we are in the very early stages, to approach the city and figure out a way to get around that because we’ve had such great response to just those simple white lights in the trees,” she says. “We’d love to see them up for the majority of the year, if not all of the time.”
The lights added atmosphere, highlighted the beautiful heritage buildings downtown at night and made downtown more inviting, she says.
“There is a lot of nightlife that happens down here with all of the bars and restaurants and Columbia Theatre, etc., but it’s not always as noticeable or so inviting. So we are hoping to change that,” Johnston says.
The fire that devastated businesses in two downtown buildings last October is still being cleaned up. Johnston says most of the businesses affected by the blaze have managed to re-open in other either temporary or permanent locations.
Looking ahead, Johnston says the business improvement area will also look into ways it can support members with the cost of doing business in New Westminster. The plan is to look at the cost of taxes and utilities and compare them to other cities and see where the city rates.
“If there is some kind of lobbying we can do. Or just discussion we can open up, we’d love to do that for our membership,” Johnston says, explaining how they plan to use the results of the research.
The business improvement area represents more than 150 property owners and 500 businesses located from the waterfront to Royal Avenue and from the Patullo Bridge to 10th Street.
