Stormy weather doesn’t shake Food Truck Fest

MT. PLEASANT — A food truck festival in Mt. Pleasant on Saturday sought to build on a previous version of the event, debuted as “Light up the Lake” last year. It did so in several ways, with a new location at Iowa Wesleyan University, overlapping with the school’s traditional “Spring Thing” date, and a new lineup of vendors pulled up to dish out food.

Mt. Pleasant Area Chamber Alliance Executive Vice President Rachel Lindeen said the new location spawned from conversations with the group’s board chair, who works at the soon-to-close college.

“It’s small town at its finest,” she said. “The goal of tonight is just to have community fun, and rally around the students. We all know that they’re all transferring, and leaving us, which we’re all kind of bummed about. So it’s nice to be with the students tonight.”

In many ways, however, the event resembled its precursor. As with last year, several vendors sold out completely, hundreds of customers walked away happy, and the weather was not quite cooperative.

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“I just hope it quits raining,” said Martin Bermhardt, owner of Big Guys BBQ, early in the evening as attendees read menus from beneath umbrellas. “I’m figuring with it happening here in town, we’ll still see some more people here today.”

And see people they did. In a follow-up interview, Lindeen said the skies cleared up eventually, but that foot traffic held a constant flow throughout the evening, regardless of the weather.

Vendors said they weren’t discouraged by the rain and cold either.

“We’ve got a lot of people that follow us, rain or shine,” said Dave DeLovely, of DeLovely's Delicious Mini Donuts. “It’s great because we’re in town, it’s easier for people to get to it … people are getting in line, that’s awesome to see.”

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Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com