On warm nights in parks around the state, crowds gather to eat loaded french fries piled high in white takeout boxes, Philly cheesesteaks precariously held on paper plates, and bowls of spicy kimchi noodles. The trucks providing these meals are arranged in a broad semi-circle, with hungry patrons able to scope out what others are eating before making their own decisions. PVD Food Truck Events is the company that produces these events in twelve local communities, from Attleboro and Harrisville to Portsmouth and Richmond.

Though these street food gatherings peak in summer, when the weather is hot and everyone wants to be outside and no one feels like cooking, they continue well after Labor Day.

“Summer technically goes until September 22, and we have great events into October,” says Eric Weiner, who founded PVD Food Truck Events eleven years ago. “Even though people get busier when school starts, there is still a lot of great weather, and fall is one of the best times to be outside in Rhode Island.”

The events are family-friendly, and ideal for pickier eaters who may not all want to eat from the same place. A recent food truck event at Diamond Hill Park in Cumberland featured the Portuguese-American fusion truck Bem Bōm, where you can order french fries topped with chicken mozambique or caçoila (Azorean stewed beef). A few trucks over, Chicked Out Nuggz offers chicken nuggets loaded with a variety of toppings—the Sandy Nuggz comes topped with thousand island, cheddar, dill pickle chips, bacon crumbles, and scallions.

At the Braised food truck, you can order bowls, tacos, or mac and cheese, with Korean beef, buffalo chicken, BBQ pulled pork, or Mexican street corn options to pair with each one. Kroffle Kreations is a newer truck offering croffles, a cross between a croissant and a waffle. Menu items also include items like char siu (Chinese barbecue pork) topped wonton nachos with pineapple slaw.

The longest line is at Good Vibes Beverages, a mobile bar serving beer, wine, and mocktails for those who don’t mind waiting.

Weiner works with about 85 food trucks in the area, and each event features a mix of ten to twenty of those trucks. He likes the vendors to cycle through locations, so you won’t find all the same trucks at the same locations more than once. Several of these events occur weekly, like Food Truck Fridays at the Roger Williams Park Carousel, which runs through September 26. Others are less frequent, like the events at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick, which will take place on September 11 and October 3. Other events are one-offs, like the October 13 event in Johnston Memorial Park. A couple are tied to bigger fall festivals.

“The formula’s pretty simple,” Weiner says. “We have a variety of food trucks, live music, and local beer and wine. And the events are always free to attend.” People bring lawn chairs and hang out to hear the bands. Events are two or three hours long and begin earlier as the sun starts to set earlier. Generally, they start between 4 and 5 pm and run until 7 or 8.

After festival season is over, Weiner notes that many of the trucks are still available to rent for holiday parties and corporate events. In addition to the food truck events, Weiner operates a nationwide consulting business for food truck owners and maintains a searchable nationwide directory of about nine thousand food trucks from coast to coast.

The food truck events are weather dependent, so Weiner keeps a meteorologist on retainer to deliver twice daily reports about the possibility of unsafe weather conditions. If it’s light rain, the event goes on. If there’s lightning or high winds, it’s off.

“Spring was great,” Weiner says. “This summer it’s been harder to get a read on weather. We’ve had a few rainouts and days where the weather didn’t do what we expected.” This time of year, afternoon temperatures are typically still in the 60s and 70s.