The Great New Mexico Food Truck and Craft Beer Festival returns to Balloon Fiesta Park

When Anthony Pepe was searching for locations to take his Food Truck Festivals of America events, the Land of Enchantment stood out as a destination of choice for a number of reasons.

“We’re based out in New England, and we basically were looking for events all across the country, looking for some warmer weather events,” said Pepe, who owns the company. “We were just chasing the sun and looking for other venues.

“We stumbled across New Mexico and fell in love with the location. It’s great.

“I mean, you have all the food trucks around there, a lot of huge space, and you have the mountains surrounding the event. It’s just an awesome event, and it’s one of our favorites.”

The Great New Mexico Food Truck and Craft Beer Festival will hold its ninth annual event at Balloon Fiesta Park on Saturday, April 19, from noon to 5 p.m. While spring weather in the state can be unpredictable, this event will run in either “rain or shine,” according to the website. The festivities include a wide variety of food trucks, vendors, live music and of course, local craft beer.

According to Pepe, the event has grown considerably since its debut.

“I think in year one, we had a couple thousand people. I think last year, we had 6,000 or 7,000 people. It grows every year,” he said. “It’s one of our favorite events.”

Pepe adds that the New Mexico version is “one of the biggest drinking crowds we have.” Local brewers currently expected to have products on hand include Santa Fe Brewing Company, Steel Bender Brewyard, Sierra Blanca Brewing Co., Bosque Brewing Co., Rio Bravo Brewing Co., Boxing Bear Brewing Co. and Little Toad Creek Brewery & Distillery. There will also be a number of regional and national brands available, as well as various cocktails and spirits. Bulleit Bourbon is a partner of the event and will be present providing samples.

“New Mexico has a robust, award-winning craft beer community, one we love being part of,” said Steel Bender co-owner Shelby Chant. “There’s healthy competition, but that’s a good thing … The playing field is smaller and more competitive if you’re a distributing brewery like we are. Shelf space is limited, handles in a restaurant account are limited. With just the one location at the moment, it’s important to get our beer in front of the masses at a large festival or community event, especially in front of beer drinkers who haven’t had our beer before.”

For Santa Fe Brewing, a spot at this type of event fits with the type of experience the company already provides at its locations.

“Our focus in all of our taproom experiences mostly surrounds the idea of food trucks,” said CEO Brian Lock. “… Our philosophy over the years in our taprooms has specifically been inviting food trucks to participate and provide the food for our customers.

“In the other cases we surround ourselves in a food court situation like Tin Can (Alley) or Green Jeans, where we focus on trying to be really involved with other local businesses because that’s important to us. Being involved in the food truck festival is a natural kind of fit for us because that’s kind of in line with our philosophy.”

Each brewery will pick a handful of options to showcase at the festival. Steel Bender for example, will be serving Red Iron Double Red IPA, Deep Cuts DIPA and its COMPA Blue Corn Lager, while Santa Fe Brewing will have Starter Fluid, NMX Standard and Social Hour for consumption.

“When deciding which beers to send to a festival, we consider several factors — time of year and regionality for sure,” Chant said. “Sometimes there’s a festival theme that calls for a particular style. But we always want to get those brands out there to craft beer consumers who maybe haven’t tried our product before.”