John Cote, Staff Writer
Florida Southern College’s very own Erika Bitting performed at the monthly food truck rally on Sept. 10 in Downtown Lakeland.
Most students know Bitting from her performances at TuTu’s live and other campus functions, but this time she took to the road and performed in front of a much larger crowd.
Bitting performed a 15 minute set at the beginning of the food truck rally in Munn Park. She performed four songs, one of which was an original.
This set, however, was not the original plan for which Bitting had practiced.
Two hours before the performance, Bitting was nervous because of some problems during sound check.
“Sound check was rough because they couldn’t mic my ukulele, and all of my songs were on the ukulele,” Bitting said.
She decided to change her set completely one hour before the show, which only added to the nerves.
“I decided to change the set to three songs on the guitar and only one on the ukulele,” Bitting said.
Bitting played on guitar and sang Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley, Forever Young by Bob Dylan, and Riptide by Vance Joy.
She played her original song, Uke Song, on the ukulele.
“It’s the first song I wrote on the ukulele and that’s why I named it that,” Bitting said about the song’s name.
When asked about her performance, she was still confident that she did the best she could even though she switched the set an hour before.
“Overall, I think I did great vocally, and I didn’t mess up any of the lyrics,” Bitting said.
Bitting performed in front of a lively crowd of FSC students and locals at the rally. There were even signs with her name on it.
“The turnout was great, and there were a lot of her sorority sisters there showing support along with a number of other Florida Southern students” said Greg Imhoff a current FSC student. “She was amazing and I am so glad I got to see her at an off campus venue.”
Bitting even received a surprise visit from her parents who traveled from Deland.
“I was so excited to see my father because he just finished with his second to last chemo treatment and I know the trip was long for him,” Bitting said.
After her performance, Bitting used her tickets to enjoy grilled cheese and lemonade from the many food trucks present.
The food truck rally happens every first Thursday of the month. The next food truck rally will be on Oct. 8 and will have a wide variety of trucks.
Some trucks you can expect at the next event are Bacon Boss, ChurroLand, Fritan’Go, Gone Bananas, I Wanna Wok, Jimmy’s Famous Seafood Express, Krepelicious, LizzieCakes, Mobile Munchiez, Nico’s Arepas Grill, Open Fire Grilled Brazillian, Palace Pizza, The Rolling Gourmet, Taco Bus, Tallulah’s Table by the Sea, The Cheesesteak Truck, The Dude and His Food, Twisted Iron and Bem Bom Food.
The food truck rally will take place at 201 E. Main St.
