Lake Sheffield will host the food truck festival on June 27

A number of food trucks will descend on the city of Sheffield Lake on June 27 for its first Food Truck Festival, Sheffield Lake Mayor Rocky Radeff said.

The Food Truck Festival will feature five local food trucks in the parking lot of the Joyce E. Hanks Community Center, 4575 E. Lake Road in Sheffield Lake. It will take place between 5:00 PM and 7:30 PM

The idea for the Food Truck Festival came from a similar event held during the April 8 total solar eclipse, Radeff said.

“One thing we saw when we did a survey for the city was that people wanted community events,” he said. “The Robinson (Family) soaps had a nice little food truck event during the eclipse.

“When I went to that event, a lot of people (said) we need to do this more often.”

In addition to community building, Radeff and the city want to promote local businesses.

Radeff said he originally campaigned for mayor in 2023 to build local businesses and events in Sheffield Lake, and now he has the authority to make that vision a reality.

“A lot of times, you forget how great your community is, just because you haven’t experienced it in a while,” he said. “One thing is when you have Community Days (July 20-23).

“You get a lot of people from all over, which is great. But, this is more geared towards people in the city and getting people out and promoting ourselves.”

The long-term goal of the city’s community events program is to make Sheffield Lake a stronger home for its residents and a destination for all.

After the Food Truck Festival, Radeff said he hopes to host citywide movie nights and other events at the community center.

“The goal is to pick some dates for community events,” the mayor said. “We have to plan them ahead of time and we have to set them up.

“The community centre, everybody wants to hire it, which is great, it’s wonderful. But that’s why we have to choose (these dates) now. Our next step would be a movie in the park or something.”

The city is working with Paula Pitasky of Encompass Marketing, 36311 Detroit Road in Avon, to help organize the event.

Radeff said the truck roster will rotate at each festival, provided the event becomes more than a one-time event.

“The goal is to market the city; she does a lot of (these events) for Avon,” Radeff said of Pitasky. “He already had a list of trucks.

“We’ve had a couple since the eclipse say they’d like to go back.”

Radeff said he looks forward to seeing the community support their local businesses on wheels.

The city is also looking to include parks, trails and indoor event spaces around the calendar, he said.