Is Palm Harbor's First Friday Food Truck Rally Still Going On?

Some organizers want residents to know that Palm Harbor's First Friday Food Truck Rally is still going to continue despite confusion over new management.

Old Palm Harbor Main Street, a Main Street program that once sponsored popular festivals and downtown events, including First Fridays, Palm Harbor's Parrot Head Party and the Citrus Festival, disbanded Aug. 1 when the Community Services Agency took over management of the White Chapel on Georgia Avenue.

The Palm Harbor Community Services Agency is a non-profit that manages the parks and libraries within unincorporated Palm Harbor.

Old Palm Harbor Main Street Executive Director Debbie Thomas, the woman who coordinated eight to 10 vendors for the monthly Friday event, is said to have been removed from her seat just days before the food truck rally scheduled for Aug. 2.

Vendors and participating First Friday businesses were left scratching their heads as to whether the event would continue, sources at the Sept. 6 food truck rally said. The confusion continued just days before the September event.

Leading up to the Sept. 6 First Friday food truck rally, Bee Branch Creek Apiaries, a local honey producer and vendor, first promoted the event to roughly 250 Facebook fans, but quickly retracted in a status update the day before the event:

"Regarding our recent event posting: The folks running First Friday Palm Harbor advised us that no vendors can attend this month, only food trucks, and this would likely be the last month for First Friday Palm Harbor."

On Sept. 6, only food trucks were set up as usual in the parking lot outside the White Chapel. Not one vendor was on site.

Michael Blasco, founder and CEO of Tampa Bay Food Truck Rally, says he was told the event is allowed to continue and he's filling Thomas' former role as the vendor point-person for Palm Harbor's First Fridays, an event that typically draws between 500 and 700 people to downtown. 

The only holdup, he says, is he doesn't have Thomas' vendor list. He is asking displaced First Friday vendors to contact him at michael@tbftr.com or 813-464-5600.

Palm Harbor's First Friday Food Truck Rally typically runs every first Friday of the month in the parking lot at the Rheba Sutton White Chapel from 5 to 9 p.m.