Eats and Beats: Reliving the Magic of the Black Food Truck Festival
Amazing Cuisine and Music are the The Heartbeat of Charleston’s Culture
This year’s Black Food Truck Festival was the ultimate fusion of flavors and beats! Picture this: eating mouth watering dishes from over 40 vendors while grooving to live performances by singers, rappers, dancers and DJs. It was my second year at the event and seeing the growth in year-over-year was amazing.
A Culinary Journey: Welcome to Flavortown!
I was so busy listening to music and dancing that I didn’t try that many restaurants but, the food I did eat was great! On day one, I went with the suggestion of another influencer and tried the honey garlic jerk lion’s mane mushrooms with Caribbean veggie rice from Vibrant Alkaline Vegan Meals. It. Was. Good! When vegans tell me something is delicious, I take it with a grain of salt (pun intended) because I’m very much a meat eater but this suggestion was spot on. The food was flavorful (even the rice was seasoned), the mushrooms were tender and the sauce was a good mix of sweet and spicy. It was also visually pleasing with micro greens sprinkled on top.
Day two wasn’t nearly as healthy but equally delicious! I stayed on the festival grounds for eight hours so I ate lunch and dinner on-site. I stopped at Chanel’s Gullah Cuisine for lunch and ordered Geechee rolls and fried okra. I thought the Geechee roll would have seafood in it but it was a Philly Cheesesteak egg roll. The Geechie roll and fried okra were made to order fresh and had the perfect amount of seasoning. And the best part was the price! A lot of food trucks mark up their prices to cover festival fees, but my lunch was only $10!!
I attended the event with a media pass so I had VIP access which included a covered area, open bar and free food so after having a few cocktails and learning some line dances, I tried the food that was included with the VIP ticket. The vendor was The Meat Wagon and Chef Lego Racks told me as soon as I walked up that he made “big back plates.” He didn’t lie, they served me red rice, dirty rice, ribs, mac n’ cheese, shrimp deviled eggs and fried corn. The food was so good I didn’t even take a picture!
The Heartbeat of the Culture: Amazing Live Performances
The first recap video that I made didn’t have any food in it because as good as the food was, the musichead in me was stuck on the performances. One of my favorite experiences was learning line dances on stage with the Savannah Show Stoppers. I was a high school cheerleader and almost minored in dance so it wasn’t too hard to catch on to the moves. I hope I have a chance to show them off soon.
I also really enjoyed seeing the Backyard Band perform live. I love listening to DC go-go music. The tempo makes go-go great to play when cleaning the house and experiencing a live performance was on my bucket list. No clue when I’ll get to Washington, DC so it was great that they came down to the Carolinas and their performance was as wonderful as I’d expected.
My favorite performance of the weekend, hands down, was The Red Sample band from Atlanta. I met them before the performance and they described themselves as having an HBCU band vibe. OK cool, but, I didn't really know what that meant. They killed their set and had people dancing all over the amphitheater! Their music was HBCUesque, covering songs like “Laffy Taffy”and “Knuck If You Buck” with a singer, horns, drums and a pianist. They even got in the crowd with their instruments to keep the energy going. People from five to 60 were on their feet having a blast! The Black Food Truck Festival takes place every April, so put this event on your 2025 calendar now.
Stay In-the-Know: Keeping Up with Black Cultural Events
To learn more about upcoming festivals check out the Next Fest list and for a detailed deep dive into events for the culture, dive into the FesTEAval Blog.
