BATON ROUGE – A new festival was welcomed downtown Saturday. The Louisiana Street Food Fest held its inaugural event.

“This has been an idea in the making,” festival organizer, Barrie Schwartz said. “It came to fruition this summer.”

More than two dozen vendors set up their food trucks near the USS Kidd. There were a variety of cuisines, from barbeque to classic Louisiana dishes.

“I’m making soft-shell crab gumbo,” Ryan Grizzaffi of The Cajun Spoon said.

Gumbo and other warm items were selling often thanks to bone-chilling temperatures. However, the weather did not deter locals from showing up.

“I had to come, you can’t pass up food, Joy Duhon said. “There are too many good options to turn this down, plus the sun is shining.”

Some runners participating in tomorrow’s Louisiana Marathon prepared by fueling up today.

“The pastalaya guys...they were great,” runner, Wendy Langley said. “We’ve got some ‘carb loading’ planned for tonight.”

Vendors and visitors alike hope this festival becomes an annual event.

“I think this is awesome, I look forward to coming again next year, Duhon said. “We’ll have to do the 5K and everything next time.”