Celebration Square is Awemazing for the anual AwesTruck

STORY AND PHOTOS BY DYLAN PAISLEY

Celebration Square experienced both rain and shine last weekend for its first ever SoundBites event.

SoundBites is a two-day open-air festival featuring music, movies and food trucks.

“This is the first year of the event and we are excited to make this an annual thing at Celebration Square,” said event programmer Jennifer Perrault. “ We took all the things we do best and rolled it all into one weekend.”

Even though the event took six months to plan, organizers couldn’t control Mother Nature. Severe thunderstorms on Friday drenched the screenings of both Gremlins and The Goonies. Clearing skies on Saturday allowed the concert and the food truck awards to go off without a hitch.

The AwesTRUCKs are annual prizes given to roadside food venders in categories such as Best New Truck, Best Graphics, Best Concept and People’s Choice. Celebration Square is no strangers to food trucks. The site was host to one of the first ever events in Mississauga back in 2010. Thirty vehicles competed over the weekend. Hollywood Cone took home Best New Truck prize, while Busters Sea Cove won Best Graphics honors. Bestia captured Best Menu Item and Me.n.u won for both Best Concept and the People’s Choice award.

AwesTRUCK winner Allen Tan in front of his food truck

“It was our dream two years ago to start a food truck,” said Allen Tan, cofounder of Me.n.u. “This is our goal and it feels really good to get this goal accomplished.”

After the AwesTRUCK awards were given out it was time for karaoke. Michael Grandsoult, who goes by the name of Mikeraphone, wowed the crowd with his rendition of “Triumph” by the Wu-Tang Clan.

Grandsoult credits his parents for the love of music and cites the movie Juice for his love of hip-hop.

Michael Grandsoult “Mikeraphone” singing triumph from the Wu-Tang Clan.

“The movie introduced me to scratching hip-hop culture and I was blown away by it,” said Grandsoult

The event ended with a concert from the hip-hop group De La Soul.

The next event at Celebration Square is the tree lighting ceremony in November, which will be the first one without Hazel McCallion as mayor.