After almost eight years, the Wheelin’ Dealin’ Food Truck Festival ended its run on February 16th, 2019. We partnered with the Mega Mix Beer & Music Festival, the last one, so we did go out with a bang.

The Wheelin’ Dealin’ Food Truck Festival at Magic City Casino was the first recurring Miami food trucks event I curated and produced. When it first started on March 11th, 2011, it was called the Wheelin’ Dealin’ Street Food Festival.

Back then, the buzzword was Street Food, not Food Truck, for the growing mobile food movement.

Wheelin' Dealin' Street Food Festival poster — The original poster

The Food Trucks at Magic City Casino happened rain or shine and was only canceled once in its entire run. Unfortunately, we stopped just short of hitting the 100 events mark, which would have been nice to reach that milestone.

Many food trucks like Adam’s Filling Station, HipPops, Miami Roasted Corn, Monster Burgers, and Woody’s Burgers cut their teeth at the Wheelin’ Dealin’ Food Truck Festival.

Unfortunately, its eventual undoing was its undoing, dwindling attendance,\ and the City of Miami’s interest after seven years to come down on the event and make our life difficult.

We did a bunch of special themed events, including El Main Evento.

Still, my two favorites were when we set the Guinness World Record in 2013 for the Largest Parade of Food Trucks and when White Castle’s CraveMobile showed up in 2015 to such long & unruly lines they had to shut down early.

LARGEST PARADE OF FOOD TRUCKS

Food Trucks setting Guinness World Record

62 Food Trucks Who Set The Guinness Record (alphabetical order): 2 Jive Turkeys, Arepa Box, B.C. Taco, Best French Fries, Big Belly’s Deli, The Big Ragu, Bite Gastrotruck, Boba Station, Los Chamos, Che Grill, Cheeseburger Baby, Cold Stone Creamery, Crave, Crazydilla, Cuban Cube, Daddy’s Grill, The Daily Special, Dolci Peccati Gelato, Don Mofongo, Dough Food Truck, The Empanada Truck, Fireman Derek’s World Famous Pies, Food Junkies, Frankie’s Pizza, Friar Tuck’s, Frozen Drink Company, Grill Master Café, HipPOPs Handcrafted Gelato Bars, Il Fiorentino, Jefe’s Original Fish Taco & Burgers, Joji Yogurt, Killer Pasta, La Nostra Pizza, Love at First Bite, Mangia Mia, Marlie’s Delights, Miami Press, Mobile Culinary Kitchen, Mojo on the Go, Monster Burgers, Monte’s Country Cajun Cookin, Mr. Good Stuff, Munch Cakes, Mushaboom, Nacho Bizness, Palate Party, Pescados Unidos, Potoffee Chips, Purple People Eatery, El Rey De Las Fritas, The Rolling Stove, Royal Wings Truck, Slow Food Truck, Snow Caps, Sugar Yummy Mama, Sweet Sensations, Taco Fresh, Taco Heat, Taste of South Africa, Top Fries, Waffleosophy and last but not least Zombie Ice.