Heat, rain create weather double whammy for Saturday festival-goers

It rained on and off most of Saturday, and an impending heat wave loomed over the Twin Cities, as more than 50 food trucks and a couple dozen other vendors packed the Union Depot parking lot in St. Paul for the Minnesota Food Truck Festival.

The event has been held in St. Paul rain or shine for nearly a decade, but the rain caught them off guard this year, organizer Jess Fast said.

“Today, we were not prepared for the huge down fall,” she said. “I feel like we were super lucky, like, 2015 to 2019, right? Like, it was always just sunny, and now it seems to rain on every weekend. I don’t know what that’s about.”

The scattered tents, Mississippi River breeze and the Lafayette Bridge overhead helped people escape some of the heat and rain drops.

“It’s rained here in years past, and people just kind of seek a little bit of refuge, and they come right back out. It’s kinda cool,” Fast continued.

Station No. 6 food truck owner Josh Matthews and his crew were working up a sweat well before the heat peaked for the day, cooking up burgers over a savory, sizzling grill.

“It’s hot, it’s definitely hot,” Matthews said, wiping his face with a rag.

“Middle of July, August heat. There’s a couple of days where you gotta shut down to keep staff safe, but overall, it’s manageable.”

Judging by the size of the crowd, the food was still enough incentive to brave the weather.

“I think it feels great. The sun isn’t out which helps,” commented attendee Jonelle Tempesta who was taking a lap around the lot with friend Colleen Johnson.

The pair using a couple of cold beers to keep cool.

“If the sun were out, I’d be dying,” Johnson said.

Unlike other Minnesota Food Truck Festival events across the metro, organizers said there’s no running water for the parking lot, so it was a bring your own water or buy it there situation, with beverage proceeds going to non-profit Feed My Starving Children.

“Money goes directly to starving children. It’s a really really cool partnership,” Fast said.

Back at Station No. 6, Matthews said they’re prepared for back-to-back sweaty, summer days.

“We’ll be beat for sure,” he said with a laugh. “We’ll go home, and we’ll rest up and get more fluids in us, and we’ll be back tomorrow.”

This event goes until 7 p.m. on Saturday, and it’s back on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. with an almost entirely different group of food trucks, Fast said.