Shorter fest, more food: A look at the changes to Festival of the Arts for 2024
With just under two months left in 2023, the committees responsible for bringing Festival of the Arts to Oklahoma City are hard at work on the 2024 festival.
Following the announcement earlier this year that the festival would move to a shortened four-day format, organizers are working to ensure those four days, April 25-28, 2024, are even more memorable than previous years events.
That includes the food committee that comes together for the annual food jury process to sample and select the items submitted by food vendors that will make it to the festival.
Even with plans for a shorter festival, applicants were quick to toss their hats into the ring for one of the coveted spots on International Food Row. The festival received more applications than ever before, according to Arts Council Oklahoma City communications director Will Hutchison, with 75 vendors applying.
More: Arts Council OKC eliminates Opening Night New Year's Eve event, changes Festival of Arts
"That means the committee and Arts Council staff did our job right and we got the news out because it's always been an open call for food vendors from all over," said Phi Nguyen, food committee co-chair. "It's a process that everybody abides by, but we want to see new talent, we want to see new faces."
The jury process, which would happen in February in years past, took place Wednesday and Thursday. Selected vendors were invited to bring the exact items they planned to sell for sampling. Pricing and details are required to be included during food jury and items are scored in a variety of categories, like taste, affordability and more.
"This allows us to get this lined up, work on logistics, work with the vendors on pricing, all the details and make sure they are good to go for a strong four days of festival in April," Nguyen said.
When will the Festival of the Arts 2024 food vendors be released?
Spots are limited and coveted, but the committee and festival are consistently looking for ways to allow the best variety and options for festivalgoers and vendors alike.
"We only have 21 food booths available," Nguyen said. "For food carts, we have five or six available and then this year, we are bringing back food trucks."
In 2021, the festival's food options were entirely sourced via trucks as the organizers worked to navigate hosting the festival in a world still deeply impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nguyen said they decided to bring some of those trucks back for a few reasons.
"We're going to have between three and four food trucks and so that gives us the flexibility to kind of stretch the footprint of where food vendors are offered," she said. "We had some really cool vendors that got to participate when we did the food trucks and when we took it back to booths, some of them don't have the infrastructure for that."
While the full list of food vendors will not be available for a while, one favorite is guaranteed to return, Nguyen said. Big Biang Theory, the city's beloved hand-pulled noodle truck at work on opening a brick and mortar restaurant, will be back "for sure."
"The top-five food vendors who have the highest sales each year get a first right of refusal for participation and don't have to do food jury. Everybody else does," Nguyen said. "Big Biang has been knocking it out of the park. They are certainly a fan-favorite and I'm happy to announce they will be returning next year."
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Changes coming to Festival of the Arts 2024 in OKC
