Food Truck Festival returns to Hollywood Casino
Bill Welch of Wellsburg, W.Va., gives his wife, Debra, a cherry at a previous Greater Pittsburgh Food Truck Festival.
A file photo of the Greater Pittsburgh Food Truck Festival, sponsored by the Observer-Reporter. It will be at the Hollywood Casino at the Meadows this weekend.
The Greater Pittsburgh Food Truck Festival will be at the Hollywood Casino at the Meadows this weekend.
Many vendors will be at the Greater Pittsburgh Food Truck Festival this weekend.
The Greater Pittsburgh Food Truck Festival will be happening Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Opportunities to shop are part of the Greater Pittsburgh Food Truck Festival.
Memorial Day weekend is usually the time when grills are fired up and the air is scented with the smell of hot dogs and hamburgers being cooked.
But if the three-day weekend leaves you hankering for something beyond those summertime mainstays, the Greater Pittsburgh Food Truck Festival will probably be able to satisfy your appetite for variety.
Taking place at the Hollywood Casino at the Meadows in North Strabane Township, the extravaganza will have more than 50 food trucks on hand offering lobsters, ribs, pierogies, pies, pizza and plenty more. It’s an Observer-Reporter event, and will get underway Friday at 5 p.m.
The festival will have “the best food on four wheels,” in the words of Jessica Tennant, events manager for the Observer-Reporter, the Herald-Standard, The Almanac and the Greene County Messenger. Carole DeAngelo, the director of advertising and events for the four newspapers, amplified the point, noting that not only will the festival have the greatest variety of food of any festival in the region, but also has a strong lineup of entertainment over its two days.
“We still hope that people go to the family cookout,” DeAngelo explained. “But spend some time with us one of those days.”
The first food truck festival was in 2016. Food trucks became popular in the last decade, and have remained so, thanks to their mobility and the uniqueness of their offerings. For the second year, the Greater Pittsburgh Food Truck Festival will have sampler tickets for sale, which allow visitors to sample smaller portions at more than 25 participating trucks.
Friday will be a night of family fun at the festival, with games, live racing and wiener dog races. Throughout the weekend, there will be live music and entertainment, shopping, craft beers and family-friendly entertainment. Vendors will be offering pet portraits, crafts, furniture and more.
This year, there will be a Pittsburgh Pirates giveaway, with one winner taking home an Andrew McCutchen jersey and a 10-ticket flex package.
The schedule of musical entertainment starts Saturday at noon with Totally 80s. Rick K follows at 2:30 p.m., and Airborne rounds out the day at 5 p.m. On Sunday, Ruff Creek will play at 11 a.m, with No Bad JuJu following at 1:30 p.m. Jukebox is set to appear at 5 p.m.
DeAngelo suggests that anyone who attends the Greater Pittsburgh Food Truck Festival should arrive with an appetite.
“You should definitely wear your elastic pants,” she joked.
Hours for the festival are 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday; Saturday noon to 9 p.m.; and Sunday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Additional information is available at pghfoodtruckfest.com and on Facebook at Facebook.com/PghFoodTruckFest.