Yes, we know it’s been a few weeks but because of our once-every-four-weeks print schedule, the North Tampa Bay Chamber (NTBC)’s 2024 Wesley Chapel Fall Festival & Carnival was held the weekend of Oct. 26-27, which was the weekend after we went to press with our Oct. 29 issue, so this is our first opportunity to show you some of the scenes from that always-fun 20th annual event.
Held again at the Tampa Premium Outlets and benefiting the NTBC’s Foundation, a record 7,500 patrons raised a record amount of money and enjoyed carnival and pony rides, live entertainment, food trucks and vendors and of course, a great costume contest. For more info, visit NorthTampaBayChamber.com.
The North Tampa Bay Chamber made a bold move by switching the venue for the 17th annual Wesley Chapel Fall Festival from The Grove to the Tampa Premium Outlets — and, despite some parking issues during the two-day event that was held Halloween weekend (Oct. 30-31), the event was definitely another big hit, attracting some pretty big crowds both days.
Instead of the usual fairway-style rides, this year’s Fall Festival, presented by Florida Penguin Productions for the first time, featured another installment of the World’s Largest Food Truck Rally, with dozens of unique food trucks (see page 46 for pictures of a few of them) offering everything from hot dogs to churros and from mac & cheese to crepes.
And yes, the event still featured the always-popular Lil’ Miss & Lil’ Mister Pumpkin Pageant.
Some folks were confused (including yours truly) because The Grove still did host a Fall Festival with amusement park-style rides and more food trucks, but I give the busy NTBC two thumbs up for this year’s Fall Festival. — Gary Nager; photos by Charmaine George
If you didn’t get to attend the Wesley Chapel Fall Festival Oct. 30-31, you missed out on the return of the World’s Largest Food Truck Rally, which, while it didn’t break the record for the most-ever food trucks in one location, the pics on this page are just a small sample of the more than 80 different food trucks that did find their way to the parking lot of the Tampa Premium Outlets on Halloween weekend.
Whether you were hoping to find Filipino Food, Hot Diggity Dogs, Alston’s Grilled Chicken, Kickin Caribbean cuisine or desserts from the Ice Cream Hearse, snow cones, frozen drinks or fried bananas, they were all on hand at the Wesley Chapel Fall Festival! — Gary Nager; all photos by Charmaine George
The World’s Largest Food Truck Rally 12 may not break the all-time record for largest food truck parade Halloween weekend at the Tampa Premium Outlets (TPO), but it will have enough food on hand that we can heartily suggest wearing stretchy pants.
The rally, according to organizer Jeremy Gomez, is expecting roughly 80 trucks for the Oct. 30-31 event, which will be held 11 a.m.-6 p.m. each day. That truck number was as of our press time, and is expected to grow.
The World’s Largest Food Truck Rally, a traveling caravan of cuisine, set the Guinness World Record for the largest food truck parade in 2014, with 125 food trucks at the Florida State Fairgrounds. It will headline the 17th annual Wesley Chapel Fall Festival, essentially taking the place of the usual carnival rides and turning the festival into a fall foodie-palooza.
Drew Cecere of Florida Penguin Productions, which is organizing the Wesley Chapel Fall Festival along with the North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce, says the change was made to mix things up this year, as well as to alleviate the event’s competition with other area fall festivals that rely on rides.
“We went in a totally different direction this year,” Cecere says. “This will help us reach a totally different demographic.”
The Wesley Chapel Fall Festival will still offer live music, kids activities like bounce houses and a host of local vendors. There will be a pumpkin patch, pet costume contest, face painting and a Miss and Mr. Pumpkin Patch pageant. On Sunday, the popular Trunk or Treat event will begin at 4 p.m., before regular trick-or-treating begins.
Tickets to the event are $10, and can be purchased at eventbrite.com by searching “Wesley Chapel Fall Festival.” For more information, visit Facebook.com/WesleychapelFallFestival.
As for the food vendors, there will be a variety of local trucks along with those that travel with the rally. Here’s some to check out, according to World’s Largest Food Truck Rally organizer Jeremy Gomez:
TACOS Y SNACKS EL INDIO: One of the most authentic Mexican trucks around, and the owners are the hardest working I know. HORHAY’S MAC & CHEEZ: Absolutely amazing mac dishes. Comfort foods with a modern twist like their Ghost Pepper Mac N Cheez. RENEGADE BURGER COMPANY: Best burgers around. RED ZEPPELIN ROCKING LOBSTER :Lobster Rolls from heaven. TRES SUSPIROS HANDMADE BRAZILIAN CHOCOLATE: The absolute best chocolate around. Works of art. Brigadeiro Chocolate is a skill that not everyone can master… and Chef Amy has done that. These are works of art and taste even better. HOTT MESS: Tater Tots like no other! Everyone does tots now… Hott Mess has been doing them always, they wrote the book. They also have some amazing giant breaded pork sandwiches that are really hard to find this far south. SHEFU: Super authentic Chicago Style Dogs and more. And, they also are just amazing people. We know its “just” a small Chicago-style hotdog trailer, but the owners go out of their way to import everything from Chicago, making it truly authentic, and hard to find down here. SMOKIN MOMMA LORA’S BBQ: Some serious serious BBQ glammed out to the hilt. Her BBQ is on another level. TREE DOG ROOTS: Absolutely amazing mash, veggie dishes, and everything else. The owner is so sweet and has been at this for a long time…really knows her flavors. Her specialty is mashes and root vegetables, which by itself is rare.. but what she does with them is amazing. CHAZITO’S LATIN CUISINE: They make amazing food. They follow us all over the country, four generations work the truck…and they are all awesome. Their mix of Spanish/ Cuban/Puerto Rican style is super refined, and is hard to find at other places. PHILLY T’S CHEESESTEAK AND PO’BOYS: His sandwiches (pictured) are just amazing.. and they also follow us all over the country DAVIS ISLAND VIBES: Amazing tropical fruit beverages served inside a pineapple. They have been a major hit every year..and its because the drinks are fantastic. PAMZ PIZZA CONEZ: They take pizza and make them into these cones that you can hold… so they are like cups of amazing pizza goodness… that you can then eat…really clever.
Other Halloween Events In/Near Our Area:
The Sarah Vande Berg Tennis Center (6585 Simons Rd. in Zephyrhills) is hosting its first annual Halloween Dog Show (see ad, right) on Saturday, October 30, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. It costs $20 to enter your dog, and there will be prizes for the top 3 dogs, as well as raffles, gift doggie bags, a bounce castle and more. Plus, 25% of all proceeds will be donated to Allie Cares, a nonprofit organization which offers free medical care treatment options for animals and families in need. For more information, call (813) 361-6660.
The Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County is hosting its second annual “Halloween Hullabaloo” on Saturday, October 30, noon-4 p.m. The event will feature a 3v3 basketball tournament, a 5v5 indoor soccer tournament and a volleyball tournament. The cost is $100 to register each team. There also will be activities for kids in the lobby from 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m. The cost is $10 for spectators. For more information, or to register, visit Wiregrass-Sports.com.
Fall Fest at The Grove is billing itself as Wesley Chapel’s biggest Halloween celebration, and it runs through Sunday, featuring amusement rides, a pumpkin patch, carnival food, Halloween activities and more. Plus, there is a Costume Contests at 4 p.m. on Halloween. You can buy ride tickets HERE.
Congratulations go out to The Grove, the North Tampa Bay Chamber and Florida Penguin Productions for a hugely successful, socially distant 16th edition of the Wesley Chapel Fall Festival. Held Oct. 29-Nov. 1 in a new location at The Grove, on grass (instead of asphalt), with the under-renovation Grove Movie Theater visible to all attendees, this year’s Fall Festival also featured the usual food, rides and vendor booths (all on display in the photo gallery below).
A new wrinkle was that Florida Penguin Productions upgraded the entertainment and charged attendees to see top local bands like the The Black Honkeys (shown here, bottom right) and the Greg Billings Band. The weather was hot, but beautiful. A great job by all! — GN (with photos by Charmaine George, Florida Penguin Productions & GN)
Anyone who thinks the number 13 is unlucky obviously did not attend the 13th annual Wesley Chapel Fall Festival at The Grove at Wesley Chapel shopping center the weekend of Oct. 28-29.
In its second year since taking the event over from the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCC), Pinellas County-based event organizer Simply Events reports that there were at least 1,000 more cars that visited the Fall Fest this year than last year, when the two-day crowd was estimated at 10,000 people.
“Since there’s no admission fee, the only way to judge the attendance is by the number of cars that showed up, because we have our security people counting those cars,” says Sonya Bradley of Simply Events. “But, Saturday this year was definitely the biggest crowd we’ve seen so far.”
Unfortunately, with the winds gusting to 30-40 miles per hour early Sunday morning, many of the 110 vendors and crafters who were on hand on Sat. shut their booths down on Sun.
“We know our attendees were not happy with Sunday,” Bradley said. “We lost 18 tents & 25 total vendors before we opened on Sunday because of high winds. The Pumpkin Pageant set the right tone for Sunday, but the winds really hurt us.”
The pet costume parade and the Trunk or Treat events kept big crowds on site all day Sat.
“Our Chamber group ran out of 500 pieces of candy in less than an hour,” beamed proud WCCC CEO Hope Allen after the event. “In fact, all of the vehicles that gave out candy for Trunk or Treat pretty much ran out of candy, too. We will definitely partner again next year with Simply Events. What a great job they did!”
For more pics and a recap of the contest winners and sponsors at this year’s Fall Fest — which already is scheduled for the same pre-Halloween weekend (Oct. 26-27) next year — visit SimplyEventsFL.com.— GN
