Series of issues forces cancellation of Food Truck Frenzy

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

Despite winning a squabble over dates for their Food Truck Frenzy in downtown Oshawa, the BIA has been forced to cancel the event due to a series of miscommunications.

Darryl Koster, a member of the BIA and a main driving force behind the event, says he is sad to see it go, but the BIA didn’t want to run the event unless it could go off without a hitch.

“At the BIA, we want to run our event perfectly and we were just running into too many problems,” Koster says.

The original plan had the event running this coming weekend, June 20 and 21, but when that conflicted with the Fiesta Parade, the city disallowed any permits being issued for the event.

An agreement was reached to allow the even to run on June 19 and 20; however, it proved not enough.

“The Downtown Oshawa BIA strives to provide events and programs with professionalism, integrity and excellence. With this in mind, we had challenges solidifying aspects of the Food Truck Festival scheduled for Friday, June 19 and Saturday, June 20. Therefore, with the event date drawing closer, the Downtown Oshawa BIA decided to cancel the Food Truck Festival,” The BIA said in a released statement.

“The city wasn’t much to blame. It was just a collection of small things that added up to the big thing of not being able to run it,” Koster says.

Licensing issues with trucks and issues with street closures for the event were all cited by Koster as factors in the event’s cancellation.

Despite having an April 1 deadline set for 18 food trucks to be signed up for the event, only two had enlisted by the start of this month, Koster says, despite many trucks saying they would show up.

“I think it’s just a miscommunication on everybody’s parts,” he said.

Koster is optimistic that the BIA could hold the event in the future, and hopes people will enjoy the many other events held in the downtown.