Foodstock is back as first festival of 2021

Food trucks from across Kentucky participate in event featuring local music lineup and art contest

SOMERSET, KENTUCKY (April 26, 2021) — Whether you’re crav­ing a Greek gyro, Brazil­ian fare, or a good old-fash­ioned pret­zel, the City of Somerset’s sig­na­ture food truck fes­ti­val, Food­stock, will be a smor­gas­bord when it returns Sat­ur­day, June 5.

Food is the main event at the city’s first fes­ti­val of 2021, fea­tur­ing 17 food trucks from Som­er­set and across the state, as well as nine spir­it and drink ven­dors. As with the first fes­ti­val, the tastes of the Blue­grass will be com­ple­ment­ed with the sounds of local music and the col­or of local art.

“We have sev­er­al new ven­dors at our sec­ond Food­stock event and I’m real­ly excit­ed about the fla­vor they, along with our musi­cians and artists, will bring to down­town,” said Joy Car­roll, fes­ti­val direc­tor and Lake Cum­ber­land Farm­ers Mar­ket man­ag­er.

Admis­sion is free and gates will open at noon, with the heart of the fes­ti­val locat­ed at the Pulas­ki Coun­ty Judi­cial Cen­ter Plaza. The plaza stage will fea­ture a day full of local and region­al music tal­ent, includ­ing the Rump­ke Moun­tain Boys, Cody Lee Meece, Tom­my Minton & Friends and the Lake Cum­ber­land Blues Soci­ety. Beer, wine and spir­it ven­dors will line Maple Street and East Mt. Ver­non, and food trucks and street ven­dors will fill the half-cir­cle of Foun­tain Square.

Upon enter­ing at one of the festival’s four gates, patrons who want to buy alco­holic bev­er­ages will notice a dif­fer­ence this year, Car­roll said – while they must still pur­chase a $5 spir­it band, the booth to do so will be locat­ed near the beer, wine and spir­it ven­dors.

“We hope this new process will short­en wait times at the gate and allow peo­ple to start get­ting their food and drink a lit­tle more quick­ly,” Car­roll said.

The city will con­tin­ue to fol­low the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol (CDC) guide­lines for out­door events at the fes­ti­val, Car­roll said.

As fes­ti­val-goers walk Somerset’s down­town streets with food and drink, they will also have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to watch local, region­al and state artists cre­ate in real time dur­ing the Food­stock Art Con­test. For these artists, the con­test is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­tribute to Somerset’s expand­ing arts ini­tia­tives and vie for three $1,000 prizes.

The con­test will fea­ture an open for­mat and fol­low the theme of “com­mu­ni­ty.” Three $1,000 prizes will be award­ed to the three artists who best incor­po­rate this theme into their work. A pan­el of three inde­pen­dent judges will choose the 2021 win­ners. Artists who wish to par­tic­i­pate can apply here.

Con­tin­u­ing what orga­niz­ers hope will become a tra­di­tion with local fes­ti­vals, the win­ning art­work will be dis­played at a new event this year — #see­my­set Art in the Park at Rocky Hol­low Park on Aug. 14 — and auc­tioned pub­licly to ben­e­fit the city’s new art fund. Mon­ey raised will go toward future art projects with­in the city.

May­or Alan Keck said he looks for­ward to see­ing down­town streets once again filled with peo­ple com­ing togeth­er to fel­low­ship and con­nect with one anoth­er.

“Cel­e­brat­ing who we are and shar­ing that sto­ry across the state and nation is how we build a Som­er­set for every­one,” Keck said. “Our fes­ti­vals are a cru­cial com­po­nent of that, and I am more than ready to start build­ing this tra­di­tion once again. Let’s toast our beau­ti­ful com­mu­ni­ty with food, music and art.”

See a full list of ven­dors and com­plete event details.