AUSTIN, Texas — Last month, thousands of people descended on Austin for SXSW, Dell Match Play and the Texas Relays. Typically, SXSW means big business for small food trucks, but many saw mixed results after back-to-back virtual festivals.
"There's been more business out here, definitely have people walking around making sure we're, you know, booming out here," Josh Smetana, the general manager for Quezzas food truck, said. "We are locked in and getting business."
Smetana and the food truck have settled down on Rainey Street for approximately the past 18 months. SXSW brought in huge numbers of customers for the food truck parks there.
"It definitely, like, doubles or triples our numbers," Smetana said.
However, not all food trucks felt the financial boost from the influx of people. During SXSW, some owners and managers reported having a slow start to the festival, adding business dropped off by about 50% compared to previous in-person SXSW weeks.
"There were more people later on, but the business didn't get better from the first few days," Gohar Tureen, Manager of KaBaBaQue, said. "Historically, going back, it was still half of what it used to be."
Tureen has set up one of his food trucks at Sixth Street and Red River Street for the past 10 years for SXSW. Normally, the week makes up for about 20-30% of his annual sales, he added.
"Sixth itself is not the hot spot anymore," Tureen said. "It used to be, you know, even though we're known for it, it's not the same anymore."
Tureen said new spots downtown have gained popularity, if this year's SXSW is any indication, including Rainey Street, West Sixth Street and Congress Avenue.
"Sixth Street has just become only music, and then this year, I think with a lot of bigger artists and events never came to Sixth Street, they were more towards, I think, the new Moody Center area," Tureen said. "There were some stuff happening in that area or Sixth or Rainey. So I hope we can revive the Sixth Street again."
The slow business has forced Tureen to reconsider whether or not he'll book that location next year. In the meantime, Smetana is already looking ahead to SXSW 2023 as a Rainey Street food truck.
"We hope to be, you know, selling food out here and enjoying being here with the community, bringing everybody together and having some fun times, good music, good food," Smetana said.
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