The only thing we knew about #ManyFest was that there would be lots of food trucks and really that was enough for us to embark on a 30-minute walk to Broadway. This was the 7th staging of the Manitoba street fiesta. The festival is hosted by Downtown Biz and sponsored [mainly] by Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries.

ManyFest is a three-day event, held on Broadway and Memorial in Downtown Winnipeg. We initially thought it was just a food festival that featured a food truck competition (the #FoodTruckWars), however it is much more than that. It is a festival of fun, food, frolic, good music and amazing local finds. Small (and not so small businesses) display their wares on the streets and there are two stages (as far as we saw at least) where amazing local musicians play during the 12 hour long festival (7 hours on Sunday).

The festival ran from September 8-10, and it is one of the “final few” festivals for the summer. That weekend also saw the Chinatown Street Festival and the Sherbrook Street Festival. But our eyes were locked on the food, so we briefly walked through the Chinatown Festival one afternoon but we made it to ManyFest twice (the food was that good).

Friday evening

I rushed home from school, went grocery shopping, and then cleared the rest of my evening to attend #ManyFest. We headed straight for the food trucks (the festival boasts upwards of 30 food trucks for the year) that were entered in the #FoodTruckWars. after walking around to see what our offerings were, we decided on pulled pork with sweet potato fries; lemonade; and wood-fire pizza. (FYI: We did not eat this all at once and we shared all the meals).

We decided to start the evening at BBK’s with a barbecue pulled pork sandwich with sweet potato fries. They also had SOOOOOOO MANY condiments (we love condiments!).

It was SOOOOOO good! Barbecue sauce and pulled pork are definitely top 5 on the list of things we appreciate eating. The contents of the sandwich (which was pretty much probably just cheese, pulled pork, and sweet peppers) all worked together perfectly for a truly amazing experience. We also added extra spicy barbecue sauce (because that’s always important).

The fries were so good ! They literally taste like you’ve cut a sweet potato, breaded it and fried it. So authentic.

After that delicious first meal, we were so thirsty and the lemonade stand was calling our names.

Lemon Heaven had so many varieties of lemonade flavours to choose from. I had the Watermelon Lemonade and my husband had the Tiger’s Blood I believe. It didn’t taste much different from the Watermelon to be honest, but it was quite refreshing.

We then moved on to the pizza truck, I had tasted their wood-fire goodness once before (at Folklorama) and was looking forward to another amazing personal pizza.

It said “wood fired” but I was really amazed to see that it was using actual wood.

We ordered the ham and pineapple pizza. It was good, however the ham pieces were very small and let’s just say they were very hard to find on the pizza.

After this, we rolled ourselves home ( we were so full )… and then decided we would do it all again on Saturday.

Saturday

We decided to go a bit earlier this time so we could get some dessert also (there was an aisle of dessert trucks that were stationed to the right of the main stage). Clearly the theme for the weekend was pulled pork, so we had pulled pork sandwiches twice and then ended the evening with delicious options from the Bridge Drive-In.

The first stop…

We ordered the barbecue pulled pork sandwich, however this food truck did not have the variety of sauces as BBK’s… in fact, they only had ketchup (salt, pepper and vinegar).

It was weird that they put the burger on the shiny side of the wrapper, it was more difficult to eat, because it kept sliding around. Overall, it was a good sandwich. (Personally, I didn’t feel like it topped BBK’s but it was a good sandwich).

We then went on to …

The line for the next food truck that had a pulled pork sandwich at the top of its menu was so long, we decided to get mini donuts to pass the time. We had always wanted to try these mini donuts (when we’ve seen them at other events/places) but the lines were always so incredibly long. The line was manageable this time and we finally got them and I believe we opted for strawberry sugar.

Yes… all that white stuff is sugar. I was kind of underwhelmed initially to be honest. It literally tasted like hot fried dough and then you had to pick up some sugar to sprinkle in your mouth to get any “sweet” taste. However, I didn’t want to compromise my palate before having the next pulled pork meal so I decided to take some home and it turns out they tasted much better after being refrigerated.

As we finally saw the front of the line, we realised that they also had ribs. We had been trying to get ribs from the day before at another food truck, bur even after going earlier on Saturday they were already sold out. So, needless to say we ordered the pulled pork sandwich, and a half rack of ribs (I was not aware at that point that it came with fries and coleslaw).

Now, all the pulled pork sandwiches we had tried before this point were barbecue pulled pork sandwiches, so I was definitely expecting that amazing hickory smoked sauce…but there was nothing. I had not looked at the menu long enough to realise that the menu item did not include the word “barbecue”. I didn’t enjoy this sandwich. It didn’t taste like the pork was seasoned at all. There was also coleslaw in the sandwich and it didn’t help at all, it tasted like air. I felt like I was eating nothing – perhaps this is what they mean by empty calories. This food truck also had no sauces, other than ketchup.

We were excited that the ribs would save the day, I was more excited because it had some kind of sauce, that seemed like it was of the barbecue variety. This was also an unfortunate “let down”. The meat did not taste seasoned and this time the barbecue sauce couldn’t even help. The fires however we amazingly crispy and attempted to save the day. The line=up for this food truck was so long we had such high expectations. It really was not worth the wait.

After that slightly unpleasant experience, we needed to drown our sorrows in desserts. We somehow turned the corner and just wound up in the line for the Bridge Drive-In. I only knew about this place because a colleague had told me that it was a staple during the Winnipeg summer.

We stood in line for a while and used to the time to weigh our options. We were initially going to share a treat, but after seeing the variety of delicious frozen desserts we decided against that. I ended up getting a flurry (Oreo) and he ended up getting a milkshake masterpiece – the Nutchella.

The night ended well. We thoroughly enjoyed our #ManyFest experience.

P.S.: Snack Map is a cool app you can use to track your favourite food trucks. Additionally, you can just check them out on social media to see where they will be next. Some may also have physical locations, as is the case with the Bridge Drive-In (which we may or may not be visiting…regularly… before winter). For a list of all participating food trucks in the #FoodTruckWars, click here

We will leave you with three parting tips:’

Go to #ManyFest with a group of people and share meals. This will definitely give you all the ability to try more food. We shared all the meals and still went home so full. Going in a group and sharing will ensure you get to taste many things without going home too full and feeling horrible. Go to at least two days. It was a whole different experience going on Friday night than on Saturday afternoon and we wouldn’t have had it any other way. Perhaps go ion Friday evening for dinner and then go back on Saturday (in the afternoon, or even late morning) in order to peruse the street sale and take in more of the entertainment. Be prepared to walk…and stand for a while. Wear comfy shoes. Not all the food trucks provide any kind of seating, and the ones who do provide (at most) 2 tables and 4 chairs. There is seating provided in the beer and wine garden, but I feel like that could take away from the overall experience if you’re a newbie to the festival. It may have been smart to bring chairs or even a blanket to spread on the lawn.4 Pace Yourself. Take breaks in between food truck meals/ There are so many amazing options and you have to be able to try as much as possible. Take a Sweater. Winnipeg weather has a mind of its own. It can be warm and sunny now and then in a few minutes there’s cold wind and you feel like your heart is freezing (I;m being very dramatic, but you get the idea). Take along your “just in case” sweater even if it’s 25 degrees outside; a sweater is a definite necessity if you plan to stay until nightfall.

See you next year !