The Calumet Club in Augusta will host its first-ever Food Truck Friday Sept. 8 in the club’s parking lot.

The event will feature food from at least 10 different vendors and is meant to be one last fun time before the end of summer.

The club’s first vice president, Lisa Newell, said they were looking to do something fun for their members and guests “to end the summer with a bang,” and she came up with the idea of having food trucks from around the state fill the parking lot.

“It’ll be a great last hoorah to end the summer,” Newell said in a phone interview last week.

Newell said she initially hoped to have between 150-200 people at Friday’s free, but ticketed, event, and she ordered 300 tickets. Those tickets were gone within a few days and she’s had to order several more rolls; the club has given out more than 1,000 tickets so far.

“It was a hair-brained idea, but it has really taken off,” she said. “It exploded and went viral and now we have no idea how many people are actually going to be there.”

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There will be Greek food, burgers, chicken, pork tacos, ice cream and other desserts, Filipino, farm-to-food truck and more. Newell said there won’t be more than one truck serving the same items.

“We weren’t expecting this type of response, and we’re really excited to do this for the first time,” she said. “I have a feeling it’s going to be an annual thing.”

In addition to the food trucks, the club will rope off an area of the parking lot for a beer and wine garden, and she said they’ll probably have lawn games for children.

The club has at least 25 volunteers that will help prepare the parking lot and clean up after the event, and organizers are asking for anybody else that’s willing to help to contact the club.

“I’m actually a little nervous because I don’t want anything to fail,” Newell joked. “Even the best laid out plans has something fall through the cracks.”

When asked why she thought an event planned for less than 200 people may have over 1,000 people in attendance, Newell had a very short answer. “People like to eat,” she said.

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There’s been festivals and fairs around central Maine, Newell said, but there hasn’t been an event like this one in the city of Augusta. The club posted the event on Facebook and got a big response and when she asked other club officials if she should stop giving out tickets, they told her to keep going.

“We’ve advised the trucks about how many tickets we’ve given out because we want there to be enough food,” Newell said. “If we get the turnout we’re hoping for, I’d definitely entertain the idea of doing these many times next year.”

The Calumet Club is at 334 West River Road in Augusta, and the event is from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Friday.

Jason Pafundi — 621-5663

jpafundi@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @jasonpafundiKJ


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