Panama City Beach Food Truck and Craft Beer Festival
Panama City Beach First Food Truck and Craft Beer Festival brings huge crowd
By: Megghan McDougall
2/17/2018
Thousands gathered at Aaron Bessant park in Panama City Beach, FL on Saturday afternoon to delight themselves in some good eats and some cold brews.
“We started with 10,000 beers this morning, we have a lot of great volunteers helping us out” Beer Tent manager Cody Knowles who spoke to me for a quick moment between helping out his team. He did a Phenomenal job today. There was a rather long line to purchase beer tickets, however once you got the beer tent where Cody was you had a cold beer in your hands quickly.
The were so many amazing food trucks. Some local trucks and some from as far as Georgia and South Carolina. Most truck menu items were $5-$10 depending on what they were selling. Several vendors had a smaller “Sample sized” menu for the event. Allowing for a high volume in a short amount of time.
Some of the trucks featured at the show had things that you just don’t come across everyday. Dovalina’s Pizza is the only wood fired pizza oven on the gulf coast. Him and his wife have two food trucks and do catering for weddings and events.
The event sold over 4000 pre-sale tickets which was a huge turnout. The lines moved quickly for the most part and the food was getting churned out as fast as the workers could manage. It was a busy day for each truck.
“Great weather EXCELLENT TURNOUT! Waaaaay higher turnout than anyone expected. A few things needed to be done differently. Everyone seemed to be having a great time. Maybe with the good numbers, the local government will see that food trucks are awesome and should be allowed anywhere on the beach anytime of the year. Not just one event. cut the red tape nonsense and if the prime rib guy wants to pop up beach side he can more than 8 times for every 6 months. ”
~ Long time local resident and event volunteer Dawn Knopfler
Many families brought blankets and chairs. Some people brought dogs. Between trips to the beer tent and food trucks the kids rolled around in the grass. Children could have their face painted for free at a tent in the middle of the show. There were vendor booths on the far side of the festival and music provided by Iheart radio.
“Keep having this in the middle of February, this is a great week to visit Panama City Beach” – says Danielle, who came down from Nashville with her family this week and just happened to be in town for the festival.
It couldn’t have been a more beautiful day in Panama City Beach, FL I hope to see Volunteers of America come back again to host a larger event.
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