The Greater Vancouver Food Truck Festival is a series of events involving food trucks, artisan vendors, live music and family-friendly activities.
For the most up-to-date details about food truck events in the Lower Mainland, see the Greater Vancouver Food Truck Festival‘s official website.
Food Truck Festivals in the Lower Mainland
There are many food truck-related events in the Lower Mainland. Some are huge and others are smaller. The Greater Vancouver Food Truck Festival is an organization that hosts many of them.
To learn about all of the Lower Mainland’s various food truck-style events, click Lower Mainland Food Truck Festivals. To learn about the ones run by the Greater Vancouver Food Truck Festival folk, continue reading.
Greater Vancouver Food Truck Festival Events
The Greater Vancouver Food Truck Festival is a series of events in different parts of the Lower Mainland. In a typical year, each event features over 20 food trucks, artisan vendors and live entertainment. Admission to the venue is usually free, but occasionally it’s by donation. You pay though for whatever food you buy.
2023 Food Truck Festival Events
The following events take place at various locations as part of the Greater Vancouver Food Truck Festival in 2023:
- Food Truck Wars – on the weekend of March 31st and April 1st & 2nd at KPU Langley.
- Food Truck Festival at UBC – on the Wednesday and Thursday of April 5th & 6th on the campus of the University of British Columbia.
- Burnaby Block Party – on April 22nd and 23rd at BCIT in Burnaby.
- Chilliwack Block Party – on the Saturday and Sunday of April 29th and 30th at Central Community Park in Chilliwack.
- Coquitlam Community Block Party – on Saturday, May 13th, and Sunday, May 14th, at Coquitlam Town Centre Park.
- Surrey Community Block Party – on the weekend of June 3rd and 4th at the Cloverdale Rodeo & Exhibition Grounds in Surrey.
- Langley Community Day – a community event on June 10th at Douglas Park that features food trucks and an artisan market hosted by the Greater Vancouver Food Truck Festival.
- Mission Block Party – on the Saturday and Sunday of June 24th and 25th at Fraser River Heritage Park in Mission.
- Chilliwack Ribfest – on the weekend of July 28th, 29th and 30th at Vedder Park in Chilliwack.
- Richmond Fusion Fest – on August 11th to 13th at Lansdowne Mall in Richmond.
- Chilliwack Block Party – on August 27th at Central Community Park in downtown Chilliwack.
- Maple Ridge Feast of Ales – a new event on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of September 15th to 17th at the Albion Fairgrounds in Maple Ridge. (To be confirmed.)
In addition to the above, other food truck-themed events will be happening this year in various communities. Exact details, however, are to be confirmed.
What to Expect at a Food Truck Event
In a typical year each of the Greater Vancouver Food Truck Festival’s events features twenty or more food trucks serving everything from ice cream to pizza, mini donuts, and Greek, Chinese, Thai, Japanese and other ethnic cuisine. The festivals also feature live music and a vendor market area.
At many of the above Greater Vancouver Food Truck Festival events in recent years, characters from the TV show Paw Patrol have made appearances and been available for photo opportunities. There are also usually craft activities and/or a face painting station for children. This may or may not be the case in 2023.
Drive-Thru Food Truck Video
The following video is of a drive-thru food truck event that took place in the spring of 2021. It shows a weekend event in Maple Ridge at the Albion Fairgrounds. Because of COVID-19, live in-person events weren’t permitted. Drive-thru-style events though were allowed. If you watch the video, you’ll get an idea of what to expect.
As you’ll see in the video, the event happened in the parking lot of the Albion Fairgrounds. As cars arrived they joined one of several lines to get food from their favourite vendor. If you wanted food from more than one place, you went through once and then drove around again to join another line. We got our main dish – barbecued ribs – from Guerilla Q. After eating the ribs we got dessert from the Rocky Point Ice Cream food truck. It was all delicious!
Holidays on the Block
Holidays on the Block was a Christmas-themed event in December of 2021. It took place at 2150 Alpha Avenue in Burnaby (near Brentwood Mall). The event featured food trucks, market vendors, live entertainment, photos with Santa Claus and kid-friendly activities. Hopefully it’ll be back in future years too!
Tickets cost $5 in 2021 and partial proceeds benefited the BC Children’s Hospital which is a great charity. Children ages 5 and under were free. (TIP: If you brought a warm item like a blanket, mittens, toque or jacket for the event’s “Giving Tree” you could get in for free and the donations were given to folks in need.)
The family-friendly event happened on December 9th to 12th, 16th to 19th, and 21st in 2021. It was going to run until December 24th, but finished early because of rising cases of COVID-19 in the Lower Mainland. Between about six and nine food trucks were on site each day, and between twenty and forty market vendors.
To learn more about the event see our article about the Christmas Food Truck Festival.
Other Information
Check out the Greater Vancouver Food Truck Festival website for more information about the organization behind this series of food truck-related events.
To learn more about these and other similar events, click Lower Mainland Food Truck Festivals.
Other articles that might be of interest include the following:
To learn more about the communities where Greater Vancouver Food Truck Festival events take place most years see our articles about the following:
