Food Trucks, Possum Pedal and concert draw crowds to Graham

Saturday was a full day of events for the city of Graham, starting with the Possum Pedal in the morning, the 2016 Food Truck Championship of Texas in the afternoon and a concert featuring Pat Green and the Casey Donahew Band to close the day.

All three events did overwhelming well, according to Krisa De La Cruz, CEO of the Graham Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“I would say we exceeded expectations on all three events,” De La Cruz said.

Official numbers on all three events were not available by The Graham Leader’s deadline, but De La Cruz said the food truck event definitely had more people than last year’s event.

“I can say pretty definitely that we had more people on the Square than we had last year, so it grew,” she said.

The Possum Pedal had about 300 pre-registered riders and an a little under 500 estimated riders on the day of the event, and that was an improvement from last year’s estimated 350-400 riders, De La Cruz said.

And, continuing the trend, the concert attendance was improved over last year, De La Cruz said, despite not having final numbers yet.

“It was more successful than we had ever anticipated, as far as ticket sales went. We were actually down on ticket sales until about 48 hours before the concert, so we were anticipating a much smaller concert and were a little worried in fact,” De La Cruz said. “We had special meetings the week leading up to try to increase ticket sales because we were worried we wouldn’t have enough, and then we had kind of a rush at the end. And that’s really an understatement.”

According to De La Cruz, the food trucks came better prepared this year. Some decreased their serving size and lowered their cost to serve more people. The feedback from the food trucks owners who attended the event was extremely positive she said.

“It was almost overwhelming when you work that hard and hear such positive feedback, but we heard from Waffle Wagon and Crab Shack and a few other that said it was the best organized event that they had participated in,” she said.

One of the main goals of the Chamber this year was to put more effort into the children’s area so that the event could more family oriented, and De La Cruz said the area was a success.

“It (the blackboard area) was full of these kids and why they loved Graham and they drew their favorite food and it was so awesome,” De La Cruz said. “The laser tag was really popular, and the fact that the parents could sit and eat and their kids could play, I think was really popular.”

The weather a week prior to the event had been a non-stop downpour of rain, which led to concerns about the event and led the Chamber to relocate the concert site from West Street to the Young County Arena. According to De La Cruz, the day was perfect not only for the food truck event but also for those at the Possum Pedal.

“We had a lot of really good feedback because people were happy that it was foggy because it provided some shade, you know, shelter from the sun,” De La Cruz said. “So, we didn’t have any problems at all with any of the routes. Flooding, weather, we really had a an exceptional day until about 4:30 when the rain came in and shut everything down, but we were wrapping up at that time anyway.”

There were 304 volunteers helped with the food truck event. Seeing the volunteers work to make it a success was something De La Cruz said was inspirational.

“It was really powerful and certainly validating that we were able to accomplish what we set out to do. And really to see all the volunteers in action, it’s kind of like inspirational,” she said. “I don’t know how else to say it because you see so many people so dedicated to the community out there working so hard.”

One concern prior to the event was the presence of alcohol on the square. According to De La Cruz, there were no incidents for the second year.

“Really, again, we had no issues; we had  no incidents; we had no complaints; and it certainly wasn’t noticeable. Even in that area, it wasn’t that noticeable,” said De La Cruz. “We had great police officers ready in case we did have any issues, but with all three events, we had no major issues.”

The feedback the Chamber and the CVB received from all the parties involved in all three events was positive, De La Cruz said.

“We had a lot of people say that they wanted to come back to Graham and that they wanted more information on other events in Graham, so that’s a really good feeling when you work for the CVB and visitors ask when they can come back again,” she said. “We had good feedback, of course, from members of the community, the people who were visiting, good feedback from the sponsors who generously gave to the event so we could pull it off and even good feedback from the volunteers.”

One problem for the CVB with the concert was the wifi access at the Young County Arena. The CVB put a line on West Street where the concert was to originally be held but were not expecting after 6-9 months of planning to have to move to the arena. The lack of an internet connection caused a hiccup for the CVB because they couldn’t access the online ticket sales.

“We did not have a way to track online ticket sales out at the arena, that’s what it boils down to. It’s our fault, and we should have seen that. But certainly it’s something we will work on next year,” De La Cruz said. “It’s a huge lesson learned for us, by far the biggest lesson we will walk away with is that we need to be thinking about those kind of things.”

The CVB had an influx of online ticket sales and was able to stop the ticket sales before the arena could fill up entirely. Despite the tracking of online tickets the chamber had no other problems with the move to the arena, according to De La Cruz, and those who made it to the concert enjoyed the location better.

“Everybody gave great feedback on the arena, that we should have it there every year and that we should have had it there from the start. So we were blown away with the positive feedback that we got when we moved it,” she said.

The Chamber has already received two calls from food trucks looking to register for next year’s event, so planning is already underway for the 2017 Food Truck Championship of Texas, De La Cruz said.