What makes a good food festival?

An opportunity has come up for me to help organise a major new food festival in Wales.

I haven't been involved in the food festival 'scene' for about 3 years, but this one is going to be rather different.

I'm really excited about it as it has the potential to be rather special.

On Friday I will be going to a meeting to explore ideas for the event and see what role I will play in the organisation.

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Before that meeting I thought I would use this post to run through the elements a food festival needs to have, and 'crowdsource' from here any novel ideas or suggestions anyone would like to throw in the pot.

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Key Elements for a Successful Food Festival...

Food & Drink Producer Stalls

Being selective about food and drink producers is important. It is very tempting as an organiser in the 'dash for cash' to accept bookings from anyone. Set criteria for producers and stick to them.

It is also worth looking for producers who are 'interactive' - giving out samples, demonstrating etc.

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Cooking Demonstrations

One option if you have funds, is to buy in big ticket chefs who will hopefully bring in visitors.

Otherwise go for local chefs - particularly ones who can be informative, instructive and entertaining!

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Workshops and Talks

These can add a great deal to a festival if done well.

But they need a lot of thought and planning.

Workshops may need an additional level of logistics for equipment etc. Talks need careful selection of speakers and topics.

Potentially they can be ticketed and become an income generator - but they need to be extra good then.

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Children's Activities

For many people food festivals are a family day out so the needs of children should be considered.

Activities for children should ideally be integrated into the purpose of the food festival rather than random add-ons like donkey rides and bouncy castles.

It would be better to go for producer treasure hunts, healthy eating quizzes, chocolate making workshops etc.

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Refreshments - hot food vendors, beer tents...

Although many producers may be selling eat on the go food on their stalls, there is likely to be a need to have some straightforward street vendor type outlets - burgers, hot dogs, pizza, ice cream and beer!

The key is to be selective - look for quality and relevance. And get the right number of them - too few and there will be long queues and early sell-outs. Too many and everyone complains.

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Entertainment

There is an argument that the cooking demos, the workshops and talks, and the producer stalls themselves should be the entertainment.

But people like extra enterainment too - music, jugglers, mime artists and even belly dancers.

Chose wisely and think carefully were to position them.

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As well as organising all these there are the general logistics to get sorted like insurance, first aid, parking, toilets, rubbish collection, signage, health and safety, water and electric etc.

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In advance of the festival there is the big, big task of promotion, promotion, promotion.

This can take many forms - leaflets, adverts, press releases, social media...

Social media is becoming ever more crucial for a successful event. It needs to be well coordinated, well planned and started well in advance of the event.

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There is a great deal to organising a successful food festival.

But I love the challenge of the organisation, and I love the thrill and satisfaction of pulling off a successful event.

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If anyone has any ideas, suggestions, novel ways of doing things or innovative activities seen at other events please do comment below.

Thank you.

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[ header image from pixabay.com // other images from @pennsif ]