Food festival, trade days offer downtown fun Saturday
The Front Street Food Fest returns Saturday to tempt your palate with the tasty fare offered by food trucks.
They’ll set up shop at Front Street Festival Plaza from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. in downtown Texarkana, but there’s more in store than just food. “Basically we have a variety of stuff. This is the second annual food festival. We will have live bands. We will have a golden treasure hunt,” said organizer Tameka Grady.
That treasure hunt offers up to $500 in cash and prizes, and Grady says it’s a way to get people to know and explore downtown Texarkana. “They get the set of clues and they’ll run around downtown to find the treasure,” she said, adding, “It’s historical down here, so we want to give them a little fun and education.”
As to the tasty food options, more than 18 vendors are signed up to offer everything from roasted corn on the cob to foot-long hot dogs, muffaletta sandwiches and chicken and sausage gumbo to fried catfish and onion rings wrapped in bacon, barbecue ribs to Texas-style burgers and Cajun cheeseburgers and much more.
Los Ruvalcaba, Boondocks, Elves Candy Company, Belly of the Beast, Bad Bird Tea, GG’s BBQ , Twin City Empire and Cheeze it Up are just some of the vendors tapped to participate.
“We have food vendors coming from all over,” said Grady, who added that most bigger cities have a food festival in a central part of the city.
“This was much needed in our downtown area,” she said. A food truck festival also gives people here an opportunity to taste food from different cultures, she said, such as jerk chicken and
Caribbean food.
For many of these vendors, they may not be able to afford a storefront at this time, Grady said, so this is a chance for them to reach the community with the food they offer. She calls the festival a “platform for small businesses,” a way to help local entrepreneurs.
While food vendors serve their fare, live music will fill the festival area. On tap to listen to are the Liberty-Eylau High School Marching Band, The cageRattlers and One Zound. As well, a few arts and crafts vendors will participate.
Also on Saturday at the nearby 1894 City Market, formerly called the Ritchie Grocery Building, the Second Saturday Trade Days will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with crafts, food, artist demonstrations, building tours and more. It’s an open air market held every second Saturday of the month.
(More info: FrontStreetFoodFest.com.)