Tens of thousands of people visit downtown Little Rock for the Main Street Food Truck Festival

Little Rock, Arkansas – The 12th Annual Main Street Food Truck Festival was projected to draw more than 35,000 visitors to Main Street on Sunday.

The Downtown Little Rock Partnership, a nonprofit organization, organized the event with the intention of attracting visitors and reviving the neighborhood.

The purpose of the event, which still is to draw people into the downtown area on weekends, was originally to support public art and other free events for residents of Little Rock to enjoy.

This year, Nashiya Adams brought Shiya’s Kool Aid Pickles, her food truck, to Main Street.

“We sold out of like 300 something, the most we’ve ever done,” Adams said.

According to Adams, this event is crucial for Downtown Little Rock and local businesses. According to Gabe Holmstrom, Executive Director of the Downtown Little Rock Partnership, this event has contributed to the development of downtown.

“Back in 2010 there were no restaurants up and down main street, none of this existed,” Holmstrom said.

That is no longer the case, he claims.

“We’ve shown that people will come out and people want to go out and participate in food and beverage in an urban environment. Now, we have restaurants all up and down Main Street,” Adams said.

Numerous volunteer workers, 65 food trucks, 50 craft dealers, and 40 musical performances were all there.

“It takes these events to be able to create the funds necessary to do the public art, to put on the events, to put on the movies that we do and build things like the pocket park,” Holmstrom said.

Adams says she is preparing for the future and will keep supporting Downtown.

“We are coming back next year, back and better,” Adams said.

According to the Downtown Little Rock Partnership, its objective is to make downtown a location to live, work, play, and invest as well as to keep the neighborhood developing. The 2024 Main Street Food Truck Festival will reportedly begin planning in January.