‘Get groovy’ for Pride Month at Funky Food Truck Festival in Avondale
June is LGBTQIA+ Pride Month in the United States, and AIDs Alabama helps kick off the festivities in Birmingham with its annual Funky Food Truck Festival fundraiser, to be held at Cahaba Brewing Company in Avondale on Saturday, June 3, from 1-5 p.m. Admission is free.
Attendees can sample food from some of the best food trucks in the Magic City, relax with a cold beer on the patio at the brewery and purchase wares from local artists and vendors at a selection of pop-up shops.
For the first time, festival attendees can also ride along on the Big Gay History Bus Tours that will help support the nonprofit Invisible Histories Project (IHP) in Birmingham.
The Funky Food Truck Festival, which began in 2017, is a “fun way for the entire Birmingham community to gather in celebration of the start of Pride Month,” said Landon Nichols, the director of development for AIDs Alabama.
With the event in its seventh year, organizers ”felt it was time to update our branding and hone our aesthetic,” Nichols said.
“The vibe of this event has always been funky fresh, but we are really leaning into that theme this year and encouraging everyone to break out their bell bottoms, find their flower power and get ready to get groovy for the funkiest festival in town,” he said.
There are about 10 food trucks scheduled to take part, including A-Train Station, CoCo Crabs, Tasteful Touch and Urban Pops. There are about 10 other vendors offering such wares as organic soap, baked goods, handmade jewelry and visual art.
The festival is an “excellent venue to highlight” some of Birmingham’s small businesses, Nichols said. “We at AIDS Alabama believe in supporting the community that supports us.”
Cahaba Brewing Company – located at 4500 Fifth Ave. S., Bldg. C. – has served as the location for the Funky Food Truck Festival since 2018, the event’s second year.
The brewery is “the perfect venue” for the event, Nichols said. “Not only do they have one of the best patios in Birmingham, but their outdoor spaces around the brewery are perfectly situated to host a festival.”
Proceeds from the event support the work of AIDs Alabama, which seeks to prevent the spread of HIV and to help people with HIV/AIDS live healthy, independent lives.
There have been many advances in the fight against HIV/AIDs in recent decades. “Science has given us the tools to stop new HIV transmissions altogether,” Nichols said.
However, there are too many people who face “significant barriers accessing life-saving treatment and prevention,” he said.
AIDs Alabama tries to break down those barriers through financial and housing assistance, transportation, case management and numerous other services.
“With your help, we can end HIV forever,” Nichols said.
The Big Gay History Bus Tours, added to the festival this year, will help support the IHP, which seeks out and preserves the rich, diverse history of LGBTQ life in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.
The tours, to be hosted by drag performers obSINity and Flap Jack, will give festival patrons “a fun excursion that will explore a slice of Birmingham’s LGBTQ+ history,” Nichols said.
Each tour will be approximately two hours long and feature 24 historical locations selected by the IHP. There will be four tours on Saturday, all beginning and ending at the brewery.
The tours are free and open to the public. However, registration is required and a $15-$25 per person donation is appreciated.
For more about the festival, including a complete list of food trucks and other vendors, go to aidsalabama.org/funkyfoodtruckfestival.
