Six different food trucks lined up at the Urbana Civic Center Tuesday to kick off the Urbana Food Truck Rally.

The rally will take place on the last Tuesday of every month, starting with April all the way until October, from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the Urbana Civic Center, located at 108 E. Water St.

Sterling Bollman, Urbana’s marketing intern and organizer of this year’s rally, said the city typically expects their largest crowd to be on opening day.

“I would say we had approximately 175 to 200 people show up to the first event,” Bollman said. “It seemed fairly comparable to opening days in the past. So while we didn’t break any records, the excitement is clearly still there for the event.”

Dragon Fire Pizza, Chester’s BBQ and the Caribbean Grill are the names of just a few returning food trucks featured at the event. Bollman said he’s looking forward to seeing some new food trucks this year.

“We do try to get some different trucks incorporated each year and so far our newest truck is Snack Shack,” Bollman said. “I think (the owner) started his truck just last year so that will be exciting to get some feedback on the food.”

Bollman said most trucks request to come back year after year and he takes that as a good sign of the event’s success.

Dave Saam, owner of Dragon Fire Pizza, said his team looks forward to this event every year. Saam credits the success of this event from the one-of-a-kind experience food trucks provide to a community.

“The really fun part about this event is that you can come with a group of people and get a whole variety of food,” Saam said. “If you were to go to a standard restaurant where you sit down to eat, you can only get one specific type of food — like Mexican or Italian or whatever.”

Bollman said the Urbana Food Truck Rally gives community members an opportunity to experience food they may not have known existed in their own community. He said the event is a chance to increase awareness of food truck options in the Champaign area as well.

Whether it is due to the convenience or the personal one-on-one experience with a food truck’s owner, Saam said the popularity of food trucks is growing nationwide. He said he’s happy to finally see this trend begin to spread in the Champaign-Urbana area.

“It’s a nice town for this style of food. Chambana combined is kind of a great resource filled with community and campus members — it just has a lot of people that have a lot of diverse tastes in food,” Saam said.

Bollman said his favorite part about running this event is the overwhelming positive feedback he gets year after year. He said all the positivity makes the work and preparation throughout the year worth it.

The growing trend of the food truck movement is something that Bollman certainly attributes much of the success toward, even the spark that started, the Urbana Food Truck Rally.

“This event is kind of capitalizing on that a little bit and letting that movement grow in Champaign and in Urbana,” Bollman said. “It’s just amazing seeing the amount of people come out for it and seeing the constant waves of people walking in.”

Bollman said he looks forward to building on the event and seeing it grow as the years go on and as more food trucks hit the streets of Champaign-Urbana.

For more information on future dates of the Urbana Food Truck Rally or for a list of all participating food trucks, visit the City of Urbana website.

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