EAST ALTON - Community members can enjoy food trucks, a car cruise, a cornhole tournament, games, activities and more at East Alton’s second annual Food Truck/Fall Festival.
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From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, East Alton and surrounding communities are invited to Van Preter Park for a day of fun and fall festivities. Sponsored by Mayor Darren Carlton and the trustees, the event aims to bring East Alton together while providing a fun, family-friendly experience for residents.
“We just want people to get out and experience the community,” Carlton said. “The village isn’t making any money off this, and we’re not in it to make money. We just want the citizens to have a good time and have things that they can remember doing and their kids will remember growing up.”
Kids can enjoy bounce houses, face painting, Foamzees and more. But the event also targets adults with the cornhole tournament and car cruise. The car cruise will include prizes for Fire Chief’s Choice, Police Chief’s Choice and Mayor’s Choice.
Carlton explained that the trustees received feedback from East Alton’s older population, who said they wanted more activities for adults. The trustees decided that the Food Truck/Fall Festival is an opportunity for family-friendly fun that spans generations.
“We decided last year that we wanted to make this an annual event for older people,” Carlton said. “But then we have some older people that have kids, so then we still want to throw some kid stuff in there so they can bring their kids down.”
In addition to the activities and a DJ, there will also be several food trucks at the event, including Mericue, Mo’z Sweet Treats, Klausti’s Kitchen, Twist of Soul, Tropical Sno, Taqueria Los Toros, Street Eatz, Ray’s Soul-Touching Taco, Food Revival, Rachel & Co., Kona Ice and Vera Lee.
Carlton and the trustees hope to see the event continue to grow. Because they were so pleased with last year’s turnout, they decided to make the festival an annual event.
“We had a real good crowd last year with just what little bit we did,” Carlton remembered. “This year, we’re expecting about the same if not bigger because we’ve got so much more going on. We’re excited about it. It expanded on us, so we’re hopeful that people show up.”
He noted that small towns sometimes get a “bad rap” because people think there’s “nothing to do.” However, East Alton regularly sponsors events for kids and community members, and this is the latest in their lineup of fun activities for residents to enjoy.
Carlton thanked everyone in the village for their work to make the Food Truck/Fall Festival a success. He encourages people from across the Riverbend region to join East Alton for a fun day on Oct. 6, 2024.
“We got the whole village involved in this. When I say village, I’m talking about village workers, all the city trustees are involved, the fire department, the police department, the Public Works department, Parks and Rec — we’re all involved,” Carlton added. “We’re all doing this just to make it a better place and a fun-filled activity on a Sunday afternoon.”
For more information about the event, visit the official Facebook event page.
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