JerseyFest

I so wish I would have read the reviews from last year before going to this mess. Great idea but horrible execution and planning. Got there at 5:30 and the amount of people was overwhelming. The chaotic atmosphere and total lack of organization truly took away from what should have been an interesting experience.
What surprised me the most (the morning after) is that based on reviews from last year they had the same exact problems! Long lines that criss crossed. Trucks parked too close and in no order.
Left there after maybe 30 minutes of trying to figure out what line will get me fed by midnight and realizing that may not happen. I work in the events industry and if I ran an event like the people who ran this one I’d be on the long unemployment line.

Absolutely the biggest waste of time I have ever endured. I drove over an hour to this because my sister invited me and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Arrived 15 minutes before it started and was directed by the parking attendant to park about 2 miles away from the event — which would have required taking a shuttle. Given my wife and I have two small children and a wagon to push them in, a shuttle was not an option for us. I got back in the car and drove past several angry parking attendants and found a spot much closer from which we were able to walk to the event.
By the time we got there, it was a few minutes after it started and there was a sea of people and lines literally more than 100 people long at each truck. Picture Disney World in July — that’s the closest thing I can compare the crowds to. To make matters worse, there was no organization at all, so the lines snaked in various directions and made simply walking the area impossible. We finally found a place to sit after about 20 minutes of weaving through lines and foot traffic, so I left my wife with the kids and set out to walk around and see if there were any trucks with a more reasonable line (1 that would take less than 30 minutes to obtain food). After circling the venue and realizing that this event is the type that you stand in line for an hour to try 1 of the 20+ food trucks in attendance, I gathered my family and spent nearly a half hour trying to weave through the sea of people to the exit.
We went to the nearest fast food we could find and drove the hour+ home — completely livid with the fact that we wasted time and effort on this awful experience.
What the heck is wrong with the people that hype this event up so much? You really have nothing better to do than stand in line with 400 thousand other people to eat a meatball from a food truck? Never again.

I attended JerseyFest 2015, which featured the «Food Truck Mash-​Up,» a competition between Philly and NJ food trucks. 24 trucks total, 12 representing Jersey; the remainder Philly.
$ 5 general admission starting at 5:00, cash only. Or, you can pay $ 25 for early admission at 3:30. Overall, the lines were outrageous right up until just about the very end of the event. Ie. One person I was with waited 90 minutes for a crab cake. Others were waiting 2 hours for a Philly cheese steak. That said, I recommend either paying extra for the early admission or waiting until much, much later to attend. The event runs until about 11. The only risk with going later is that some of the trucks may either be closed by that point or else out of most of their menu.
Most of the trucks are cash only; some take credit card.
Pre-​register online for a $ 2 betting voucher to redeem at the event.
Live music. Free parking, but do yourself a favor and don’t listen to the parking attendant who tells you to park nearly a mile away from the racetrack. Park right in the racetrack parking lot. They try to encourage you to park far away and take the shuttle, which was about as reliable as a United Airlines flight departing on time.