Food Truck Rally Events
Festival Fridays
Second Friday of the Month | May Through August
2026 Dates:
May 8 (Location TBA)
June 12 (Plainwell)
July 10 (Location TBA)
August 14 (Location TBA)
What are Festival Fridays?
First, the event is free to attend. The decision to provide a free event designed to encourage people to come out, connect with local businesses, and have some fun!
This series is designed to encourage people to celebrate the unique places that help to define community and gathering for celebration. This is called a placemaking event, designed to change the way in which people interact with their public spaces. The festivals themselves are designed to celebrate cultures, highlight small businesses including food entrepreneurs and merchandise vendors, and to support local musicians by providing a live entertainment element.
Restaurants, food trucks, and merchandise vendors are welcome to participate. The four-part series is simply to create the opportunity to extend the event throughout the summer and to connect different audiences to the live entertainment. All participating vendors need to be licensed. The focus of the event is to promote local businesses.
Why do we do Festival Fridays?
The festivals’ design and management are intentional to provide opportunities for event management students at local colleges to learn how to pop-up a festival, learn event design, creative ideation, and how to manage a one-day liquor license for nonprofit fundraising. The management framework and logistical design is created to provide an “event in a box” format for future event producers to use to create similar events throughout Southwest Michigan in future years. The underlying educational element is to show how the festival site is activated for smaller one-evening events that use the site for a half day, with a cost-effective budget portfolio.
