Chris Briones loves grab-and-go food and said the Food Truck Festival Friday night in downtown Aurora more than satisfied his needs.
“I love food truck festivals. If they have them, I’m here, every time,” the Aurora resident said as he stood on the Benton Street Bridge during the fest. “If they have one of these, we just go. It’s a nice Friday and you just come by and see what they’ve got.”
The event was Aurora’s second and final Food Truck Festival of the year, with more than 30 vendors on hand offering a variety of food against a backdrop of music and entertainment.
Christina DiCristofano, special events coordinator for the city of Aurora, said that nearly half of the vendors offered Friday night were not there during the city’s earlier food truck event offered in the spring.
Rick Clement of Aurora on Friday said it was his first time visiting the fest and said people come “because they like to be outside when it’s still nice out and the downtown is nice with the river. It’s a nice place to hang out.”
“This is my first time as we just moved here from Michigan last year,” Clement explained. “I’ve taken pictures of a lot of these but I’ve never seen a festival like this. There’s so many trucks.”
Alani Wilson of Aurora was happy with the variety of food offered at the festival.
Alani Wilson of Aurora shows off a box of food Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, at the city of Aurora’s Food Truck Festival. (David Sharos/For The Beacon-News)
“This is the first time I’ve been to one of these with just food trucks,” she said. “There are a lot of decent options. To me, this is appealing because of the variety of things you can’t find elsewhere and it’s all in the same place and there’s the community. You get to see people come out and it’s downtown Aurora and people are coming together.”
One of the vendors on site Friday was Aurora’s own A-Town Lemonade.
Co-owner Keyyonna Presley of Aurora said this was their first year in business and that she and her husband have been attending the local food fest every year even before bringing their lemonade truck to the event.
“People come to these fests because of the variety and this is also the last event of the year like this,” she said. “We started this business – my husband has been making lemonade forever and we needed to do something together as a couple so we came up with this.”
Luis Andrade of Aurora on Friday said he last visited a food truck festival “about two years ago.”
“I think people like these things to try different foods. For me, I’m here because last night I was trying to go to sleep and I was on Facebook and they said that the Ricobene Food Truck was going to be here,” he said. “When I saw that I said, I’ve got to go.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
Dining and Cooking