More than 40 food trucks are rolling into the Franklin County Fairgrounds in Hilliard this weekend as the Columbus Food Truck Festival kicks off Friday at 4 p.m. and runs through Saturday at 10 p.m. Festival founder and owner Chas Kaplan leads the event, which organizers say will include live music, a special kids day, and a lineup of vendors ranging from longtime favorites to newcomers like Grateful Griddle.
As reported by WSYX, the two-day event brings together dozens of mobile kitchens alongside music performances and other activities that organizers describe as staples of the weekend. Grateful Griddle, owned by Lance Robinson, is among the trucks participating in this year’s festival. The event has grown considerably since its earliest days, and this year marks its 15th anniversary at a time when the festival has firmly established itself as a fixture of the Hilliard summer calendar.
From Downtown Commons to Suburban Fairgrounds
The festival didn’t start in Hilliard. According to Hilliard Beacon, the event originated in 2011 at the Columbus Commons before relocating to the Scioto Mile in 2017, pausing in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and finally settling into its current home at the Franklin County Fairgrounds in 2021. That inaugural 2011 gathering launched with just 20 food trucks and no operating budget, yet still drew 20,000 visitors to the Commons, according to footage posted on YouTube documenting the festival’s origins.
Fifteen years later, organizers expect the 2026 edition to draw more than 25,000 visitors across the two days, per a report from Columbus Real Estate News. That would make it one of the larger regional food truck gatherings in the Midwest, a scale that traces directly back to the modest downtown event of a decade and a half ago.
Music Headliners and a Reality TV Guest Appearance
Turntablist DJ Logic and pedal-steel guitarist Robert Randolph and Friends are set to headline the festival’s main stage on Saturday at 7:45 p.m., according to 10TV. The lineup gives the festival a national musical presence beyond its local food truck roots…