Chattanooga is getting its World Food Truck Festival back — and this time, it's coming back even bigger.
After severe weather brought the original July Chattanooga World Food Truck Festival to an early end, Hearthara Culinary announced the festival will return to Tennessee Riverpark on Saturday, August 29, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., presented by EPB and DadBod Go.
Rather than simply recreating the original event, organizers and community partners have used the reschedule as an opportunity to expand the experience, bringing Chattanooga more international food, more giveaways, more family activities and even more reasons to spend the day at Tennessee Riverpark.
"From the moment we knew we had to stop the original festival, the question wasn't whether we were going to come back. It was how we were going to give Chattanooga the day we set out to give them," said Hearthara Culinary CEO and Chef Sara Turney. "EPB and DadBod Go stepped up in a huge way. Instead of treating August 29 like a rain date, everybody came to the table asking what we could add, what we could improve and how we could make the return something really special."
Eat Your Way Around the World
Food remains at the heart of the Chattanooga World Food Truck Festival.
The August 29 return will feature an even larger collection of international and culturally inspired food vendors, bringing together mobile kitchens representing cuisines, flavors and culinary traditions from around the world.
The festival was created not only to showcase great food, but to highlight the chefs, families and entrepreneurs behind Chattanooga's increasingly diverse mobile-food community.
"This event has always been about more than putting a bunch of food trucks in a field," Turney said. "Some of the most incredible cultural storytelling happening in our community is happening through food. You can walk across this festival and experience dishes connected to completely different parts of the world while supporting independent businesses from right here in our region."
More Than 100 Makers, Artists, Businesses and Nonprofits
Food is only part of the festival. Guests will also be able to explore a sprawling marketplace featuring more than 100 makers, crafters, artists, small businesses, community organizations and nonprofits.
The marketplace is intentionally designed to give locally owned businesses and independent creators access to thousands of potential customers while giving festivalgoers a chance to discover businesses they may never have encountered before.
A massive Kids Zone will offer activities and experiences for children and families, while live music and entertainment will continue throughout the day.
And When the Festival Ends, Stay for the Movie
The celebration won't end at 7 p.m. Families are invited to stick around at Tennessee Riverpark for a free outdoor showing of Disney and Pixar's Ratatouille beginning at 9 p.m.
The movie will close out a full day of international food, local shopping, live music, family activities, giveaways and community celebration.
EPB and DadBod Go Help Bring the Festival Back Bigger
With EPB and DadBod Go now presenting the rescheduled festival, the partnership is bringing more than additional activities to Tennessee Riverpark. It is also bringing new infrastructure designed to make the festival experience more connected and interactive.
EPB will provide free Wi-Fi across the festival grounds, helping support festival operations while giving guests the connectivity needed to participate in the DadBod Go App Passport experience throughout the day.
The digital passport will encourage guests to explore the festival, interact with participating locations and discover more of what is happening across the grounds rather than experiencing only one section of the event. The free Wi-Fi will help make that experience possible at a large outdoor festival where thousands of guests, vendors and staff members may be using their phones at the same time.
Alongside EPB, Cameron Parker and DadBod Go are turning up the volume on the festival experience with an expanded lineup of giveaways, prizes and interactive activities throughout the day.
"When the weather cut the first festival short, Chattanooga didn't get the full experience everybody had worked so hard to create," said Cameron Parker of DadBod Go. "So if we're getting another shot at it, we're not interested in just doing the same thing over again. We're going bigger. More prizes, more things to do, more reasons to explore the festival and more opportunities for somebody to go home saying, 'You are not going to believe what I won today.'"
Festivalgoers will have opportunities to win prizes including a Blackstone grill and accessories package, a smoker and accessories package, giveaways from Ink House Tattoo Studion.
DadBod Go will also launch a festival-wide scavenger hunt, sending guests throughout the grounds to discover clues, activations and prizes across the event — creating another reason to explore the marketplace, food vendors and experiences throughout Tennessee Riverpark.
"We don't want people to walk in, grab something to eat and leave," Parker said. "Go try food you've never had before. Meet these businesses. Walk through the marketplace. Use the passport. Do the scavenger hunt. Bring the kids. Listen to the music. Win some stuff. Stay for the movie. We want people to come experience the whole thing."
A Reschedule Became an Opportunity
Rescheduling a festival of this scale meant reorganizing vendors, logistics, partners and operations following an event that had already taken place once. But organizers say the response from partners and the community transformed what could have simply been a logistical challenge into an opportunity.
"What I love most about what happened after July is that nobody came to us saying, 'How do we just redo this?'" Turney said. "People asked, 'How can we help?' That's how you end up with EPB stepping in and bringing Wi-Fi infrastructure to the festival grounds, Cameron dreaming up even more things to give away, our partners coming back, vendors coming back and our team rebuilding an entire festival."
"And that's Chattanooga," Turney added. "We're coming back, we're finishing what we started, and we're going to have a whole lot of fun doing it."