The South Carolina Food Truck and Craft Beer Festival is set to line the State Fairgrounds with delicious grub and refreshing brews. This will be the event’s fourth year.
The good-time atmosphere features beer from at least 17 breweries and more than 30 food trucks — quite a few more trucks than what the organizers of the South Carolina Food Truck and Craft Beer started out with. Boston-based Food Truck Festivals of America is the company that puts together the South Carolina shindig.
Back in 2011, the budding company heard from a sister public relations agency that a client wanted to do something different.
“They were tired of art, tired of music (events),” recalls Janet Prensky, co-founder of Food Truck Festivals of America. “We had heard about food trucks but they were not vibrant in the New England area at all.”
They searched and got eight food trucks together from around the northeastern part of the United States for that inaugural festival. Now the company works with more than 3,500 trucks in the various festivals they put on across the country.
“We wondered if it was a fad or it was a trend,” Prensky says of food trucks. “We’ve learned over the years that it’s a trend that’s here to stay.”
Prensky and her group have also found that for the most part, South Carolinians are eager to participate in the new eating enterprise. But the weather can make folks a bit timid.
The first year of the S.C. Food Truck and Craft Beer Fest went off without a hitch. The second year, it was slammed, Prensky remembers. But last year, the Columbia heat kept would-be festivalgoers in the air conditioning.
With this upcoming go of the food and beverage party, the temperature is forecast in the mid to high 70s — and that’s “a very, very good temperature for a food truck festival,” Prensky says.
The trucks will show up rain or shine. In their history of putting on events, Food Truck Festivals of America have never canceled an event and only rescheduled one due to a forecast of lightning.
“We go out of our way to make sure we have a food truck and craft beer festival when we say we do,” Prensky says. “We’ll be there and depressed in the rain.”
The trucks’ grills will be smoking, friers crisping meats up, boilers boiling and ice creameries scooping. Just a taste of the diversity set for the festival:
Macarollin’ cooks up gourmet mac ‘n’ cheese with eclectic toppings, while Fat Bellies offer tacos Texas style. You can get fresh lobster rolls, a not-too-often-seen treat inland in the Palmetto State, from Low Country Lobster or pick up some authentic Puerto Rican bites from Chazito’s Latin Cuisine.
One truck that Prensky wants to brag on snagging up for the festival is the Charleston-based Braised in the South, which won Food Network’s 2017 season of "The Great Food Truck Race."
“What we like to do is bring in new trucks so it’s not always the same if you come to a festival,” Prensky says.
With a host of local and regional beers such Devils Backbone of Virginia; Asheville, North Carolina’s Wicked Weed; Columbia Craft and many more, a reliable selection of suds will wash down all the tastes you can get.
“We go out of our way to make sure our craft beers have a local representation,” Prensky says. “But we also makes sure to have regional and national beers.”
A few beer you might not have been able to get your hands on yet will be available. Golden Road Brewery is coming in from Los Angeles and 10 Barrel from Oregon, along with a couple more brews from further stretches out of South Carolina.
Music, lawn games, and an artist village are also planned.
But Prensky knows the stars of this show are the food trucks and beer givers. That’s what people come for, and over the years, she’s heard folks saying one thing about those handing out meals from a truck.
“I don’t think people realize these are chefs in food trucks,” Prenskly says. “We hear a lot of, “Oh my God. I had no idea that this was going to be this fantastic, that the food would be this good.’
"We’re excited to introduce people to today’s food trucks.”
If you go
South Carolina Food Truck & Craft Beer Festival
WHEN: Noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 28. (Early access VIP hour: 11 a.m. to noon)
WHERE: S.C. State Fairgrounds, 1200 Rosewood Drive.
TICKETS: $5, general admission. Get a Beer Lovers ticket (general admission + three beer tickets) for $20 or a VIP ticket (general admission + unlimited bottled water + one free dessert + $1 off beer all day + early entry) for $25. Tickets are free for children 12 and younger and for first responders with IDs. Tweet about the event for $1 off.
INFO: http://foodtruckfestivalsofamerica.com/south-carolina.
The food
Bama Boy Seafood Truck | Brain Freeze Mobile Ice Cream | Braised in the South | Casey's Big Dawg BBQ Barkmobile | Chazito's Latin Cuisine | Cuzzo's Cuisine | Eric's Que | Fat Bellies | Fishin' Fellas | Free Bird Concessions LLC | iCrave Cafe | Jones-Zee Concessions | Lita's Treats | Lowcountry Lobster | Macarollin' Food Truck | One Love Fusion Foods | Pawleys Mobile Eats | Pearls Wingz and Thingz | Pizza for Pyros | Pop's Pickles | R&R Sunset Slush | Samira's Gyros and More | Scott Benny's American & International Cuisine | Size Matters BBQ Bus | SnoBar Southeast | Tamashii | Taste Like Chicken | That's Boloney | The Donut Guy | The Hot Box | The Moroccan Cookbook | Tin Lizzie's Birds Food Truck | Tropical Paradise
The beer
10 Barrel Brewing | Appalachian Mountain Brewery | Blue Point Brewing Company | Breckenridge Brewery | Catawba Brewing | Columbia Craft | Devils Backbone Brewing Company | Elysian Brewing Company | Estrella Jalisco | Goose Island Beer Co. | Hi-Wire Brewing | Kona Brewing Co. | Landshark Lager | Narragansett Beer | Palmetto Brewing Company | Stella Artois | Wicked Weed Brewing
More festivals
Lower Richland Sweet Potato Festival: Live music, comedy and sweet potatoes. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 28, at Hopkins Park, 6940 Lower Richland Blvd., Hopkins. Free. lowerrichlandsweetpotatofest.com.
Back to the Roots Festival: Celebrate City Roots' 10th growing season with wine and beer stations (sour beers, cider beers, craft beers and local beers!), kitchen classes, a yarn bomber tent, yoga classes, and all kinds of vendors. 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 28, at City Roots, 1005 Airport Blvd. $15 at www.giftrocker.com.
This story was originally published April 23, 2018 4:45 PM.