Food truck festival’s popularity bred lines, frustration

The organizer of Sunday’s food truck festival at the State Famers Market acknowledged Monday that the “biggest response we’ve ever had” overwhelmed both the access roads and the capacity of the food trucks.

“We’re a victim of our own success unfortunately,” said Anne-Marie Aigner, executive producer of Food Truck Festivals of America. “We’re not happy that people were frustrated.”

Until this year, the company was Food Trucks Festivals of New England. Buoyed by the popularity of events in that region, Aigner opted to branch out. An event in Fort Myers, Fla., on March 21 had no crowd problems, but customers did overwhelm the trucks at an event in Albuquerque, N.M., on April 11.

“We thought we had worked that out, and we added more trucks for this one (on Sunday),” Aigner said. “Food trucks have just become a phenomenon.”

More than 900 meals were pre-sold for the South Carolina Food Truck and Craft Beer Festival, more than any other event the company has run, Aigner said. Thus anticipating a large turnout, Aigner added seven trucks to the original 20.

When she booked the Farmers Market, Aigner was told the venue handles 15,000 people for its major plant sales events. But that’s spread over several days, not in a five-hour period like the food truck event.

Traffic quickly backed up on U.S. 321 outside the market in West Columbia Sunday. Aigner was inside, where lines were forming but the spacious venue seemed capable of handling the crowds. The event had expanded from one of the large sheds to two as the number of trucks participating increased. She said when she eventually was told about the traffic problem, she called the S.C. Highway Patrol to try to get traffic control help.

With people reporting traffic waits of more than an hour on social media, some people no doubt turned around or didn’t go at all. Those who got in the Farmers Market ran into long lines and, in some cases, trucks that ran out of food before they got to the front of the line. Each truck was expected to bring enough supplies to handle a minimum of 500 meals. But many of the trucks told Aigner they had never done an event like this and weren’t prepared.

Aigner said she gave refunds to anyone who asked from the, even people who got their food.

“My biggest sadness is that people did drive a long way to get there and didn’t get any food,” she said, adding she hopes to stage another event in South Carolina. “We’re sorry, and we hope people will give us a second chance.”

This story was originally published April 27, 2015 at 11:55 AM with the headline "Food truck festival’s popularity bred lines, frustration."