Eat Real, the two-year-old street-food-and-sustainable-eating fest that drew an unprecedented 110,000 people to downtown Oakland last summer — unprecedented not just for an East Bay fest, but also because that many people have never been in Jack London Square at one time before — is going to happen twice this year: first in L.A. in July, and then in Oakland a month later than usual, in September. As festival director Susan Coss tells Grub Street, L.A. seemed like the obvious next choice. “Amazing things are happening in L.A. around food. There’s a revitalized food movement there, a lot of people getting into urban homesteading and sustainable agriculture, and we really want to bring that to peoples’ attention.”
Also, it doesn’t hurt that L.A. is home to the largest street food scene in the country, with a virtual army of food trucks out in force on any given day. The Eat Real team, which includes founder Anya Fernald, has never seen the fest as just about street food, but Coss, who’s in L.A. scouting stuff right now, says they’re “excited to be working in L.A., because of the huge selection of trucks across the board, both ethnically and in the diversity of what they’re serving.” She can’t yet divulge any of the trucks they’ve been talking to, but L.A. should be prepared for a never-before-seen circling of the wagons, so to speak.
The first Los Angeles installment of Eat Real will go down July 16 and 17 at Helms Bakery District in Culver City. Helms, a presenting sponsor of the fest, was once the headquarters of the largest regional bakery in L.A., and has since become a design and furniture hub with several eateries on premises, including the second location of much loved gastropub Father’s Office.
Eat Real will return to Oakland a month later this year, September 23 to 25.
Eat Real Fest Announces 2011 Date, Expands to Los Angeles [SFoodie]
Earlier: What You Missed at the 2010 Eat Real Festival [Grub Street]
Eat Real Fest Founder Anya Fernald Can’t Stand the ‘Bullsh*t and Pretense’ Around Fancy Food [Grub Street]
The Times Discovers that Canning is the New Knitting [Grub Street]
