ATX Food Truck Festival Premieres This Sunday

Spring in Austin might be short-lived, but it’s ideal for outside activities. On Sunday, April 15, noon-6pm, the ATX Food Truck Festival kicks off the inaugural installment of the monthly event.

After garnering widespread attention over the past few weeks, the event – presented by Austin Party Scene, Rolling Rooster and TouchBistro – has sold more than 1,200 tickets, surpassing the interest level Austin Party Scene founder David Poku originally imagined. There will be at least a dozen food trucks, three mixed drink bars, games like beer pong and life-sized Jenga, plus tasty bites from Happy Lobster, Tropical Snow, and Burt’s Chicken and Waffles.

“It is a celebration of our food community,” says TouchBistro public relations manager Yvonne Tsui. "Most celebrations in life involve food in some capacity, but why can’t we celebrate great food and great company every day?”

What started as a partnership between Simon Malls and Austin Party Scene to attract bigger crowds to the shopping center on Sunday afternoons turned into an unexpected citywide success. They plan to stuff this recurring event full of surprises, with a new location, food truck selection, and more adult-oriented games in the future – including moonwalks and mechanical bulls.

“What we are trying to do is create a scenario where you never really know what you are going to get,” Poku says. “We want to keep people on their toes, whether they are at the Domain, Lakeline Mall, or Barton Creek.”

Tsui explained that part of what makes this festival unique from the other local food truck festivities is their alcohol permits, which allow them to serve drinks specifically based on audience responses to flavor polls. Their use of TouchBistro, in partnership with Square, will hopefully alleviate some of the long lines we’ve come to expect at festivals.

Each event will also support philanthropic efforts on behalf of at least two causes. This weekend, the event will go local foundations Caritas of Austin and the Aspire to Be Foundation. Caritas – a nonprofit focused on ending and preventing homelessness in the Greater Austin area – will take home all leftover food supplies for their food pantry, while Aspire to Be Foundation – which centers on entrepreneurial civic-engagement projects – will receive all of the water sales proceeds.

Poku thought Caritas was mainly a soup kitchen, but after finding out the extent of their services – from mental health support to career and resume building – he immediately decided to get involved. He added, “Perfect! Not only are we helping on the food side, but this is the kind of ancillary stuff that is going to help people get out of homelessness, so let’s support that.”

For more info check out their Facebook page.