Most of us love an opportunity to chow down on some tasty grub or enjoy a few beverages, but it takes more than organising a handful of food vans and a keg of beer to pull off a really great food or drink festival.

If you want to pull in the crowds, your festival must take visitors on a carefully curated epicurean journey, demonstrate creativity and innovation, and have enough features to offer visitors a complete ‘day out’.

We asked the organisers of several leading food and drink festivals in the UK to share their secrets of success. Here they tell us about the elements that make for a perfect food and drink festival… 

Nick Mosley, Sharp Media Group

Nick Mosley

“As organiser of the Brighton & Hove Food and Drink Festival, Feast @ Fitzrovia in London’s West End and Guernsey International Food Festival, our primary objective is to get under the skin of the local food and hospitality economies in order to ensure they genuinely benefit from their involvement with us both during our festival periods and across the calendar year.

“As well as creating tasty and interactive experiences for consumers through our major free entry outdoor events, we also work hard to ensure the festival delivers for local businesses by adding spend into the local economy. That’s not to say that we don’t welcome international partners to join us, but that’s always through reciprocal arrangements including restaurant chef exchanges and activities at other major food festivals around the world.

“Over the past few years, we’ve partnered our events with The Netherlands, France, Sweden, Italy, Jersey, the US, Gibraltar, and Canada, with a forthcoming partnership with St Lucia shortly. As a spin-off from our international work, we generate significant food PR for the UK regions we work in, thus shining a light on our country as a significant gastronomic tourism destination.”

Brighton & Hove Food and Drink Festival. photo ©Julia Claxton

Mungo Finlayson, MFGF Events

Mungo Finlayson

 “We’re organisers of the Banchory and Inverurie Beer Festivals. We’re just about to host our 8^th festival and we’re expecting 5,000 people through the door. We have learned a lot since our first festival in 2014.

“Because we use Eventbrite for our ticketing, every time after an event we issue a survey with eight to 10 simple questions. When you’re running the festival you don’t see it from the consumer’s point of view, so you need to speak to the customer to see how they would improve it.

“One of the main things we have changed following feedback is installing bigger bars with more serving space. We’ve also improved our main summer festival by introducing a Sunday family day as people said it would be good to include under 18s.

“Friday and Saturday are not really suitable for under 18s, but now Sunday is aimed at a different market. We provide a lot free activities for children like bouncy castles, face painting, and ball pits. Parents like that they’re not having to pay out every five minutes for the things their kids want to do. And because of the subsequent positive word of mouth we’ve received we felt it was worthwhile to give those things for free. On a Sunday last year, we had about 500 adults and 200 children, so it was really successful.

“Other things that people have suggested are festival cups. We used to use disposable cups but now we’ve introduced branded festival cups that people get to keep. We’ve also introduced festival programmes so people can see what’s going on. It’s little things like that, the things people ask for, that can make a big difference.

“We’ve achieved 280% growth since we launched and there’s still strong demand. We could sell another 1,000 tickets with ease but we don’t think we’re ready for those sorts of numbers yet. Also, limiting the number of tickets available helps create exclusivity around the event.

“Last year we sold out in five and a half days. We always say to people that tickets are limited and once they’re gone, they’re gone. I think the fact people see it sells out makes them more eager to get involved.

“Another element to our success is that we were the first beer festival in Scotland to introduce gin and Prosecco into the market. It brings a much more diverse crowd. Our attendees range in age from 19 to 70 and we have a good male/female mix, which makes it a much better atmosphere. I think in the eight festivals we done, and the 10,000 people we’ve seen through the door, we’ve only seen one fight.”

Banchory Beer Festival

Margarita Kalna, Free From Events

Margarita Kalna

“Our food festival is very unique and serves a niche audience, there are no other food festivals alike at the moment! Free From Festival is the UK’s first gluten, dairy, and refined sugar-free food festival.

“From refined sugar-free chocolate to gluten-free beer, there’s always a diverse range of products to try and buy, alongside live cooking demonstrations and live music. We aim to make it an enjoyable day out for ‘free from’ followers and their friends and family as well.

“We held our first event in December 2014 and we have expanded with each edition. Lessons we have learned on the way include trying to collaborate/partner with as many businesses in the industry as possible. Helping to promote each other’s businesses is the best and cheapest marketing opportunity you can find.

“Keeping a good relationship and taking good care of your partners prior, during and after the event is also important. If you are good to them they will continue supporting you and help you grow your business.

“Communication is the key to every successful event. Make sure that everyone knows their role and has a copy of the event schedule. You have to accept that on the day of the event not everything will go as you expected it to. Be alert and be prepared for the unexpected as you will need to make spontaneous decisions on the go. Your audience size, location, and event date can change any time, so you always have to have a plan B.

“In terms of successfully promoting your festival, social media is the most powerful tool out there. Follow experts in the industry and learn how to use it.

“Treat your online followers well; reply to all enquires, emails and social media messages – both positive and negative. You can easily convert haters into lovers of your event when you provide good customer service.

“Finally, constantly seek feedback from visitors and traders; if you don’t ask you won’t know how to improve and grow your event further!”

Free From Festival

Paul Morgans, Bakewell Baking Festival

Paul Morgans

“The Bakewell Baking Festival is now in its third year. The first year we did the festival we held it in the town itself. That was a disaster because everyone was very happy walking around the market area and not actually buying tickets to go into the marquees. Logistically it was very difficult too because we had four different venues.

“Ticketing is very tricky. One of the reasons being that so many food and drink festivals are free, so people have a conception that they should be free – and quite rightly sometimes because a lot of them are essentially just markets.

“However, one of the things you find now with top chefs is that they’re very expensive; they’re like pop stars. It’s challenging because people would probably be willing to pay four times the price to go to a concert than they would be prepared to pay for a food festival.

“When you try to get star bakers, you have two options; either to keep it free for all visitors and just ticket the marquees or you have the whole thing ticketed. What we’ve decided to do is charge people for entry and give them as much value as possible. And we now have it all on one site at the Bakewell Show Ground.

“We make it really affordable for small traders by charging just £75 a day to exhibit and providing subsidised electricity. We try to create a massive village fete atmosphere. We don’t want to go down a corporate route. I’ve tried that in the past with sponsors and it can be quite challenging. Finding the right fit with a sponsor that’s the tricky bit, it can change the dynamic of the event.

“Creating the right atmosphere is very important. We encourage people to dress up their stalls. We find that vintage goes very well with baking to create that quintessentially British theme, with bunting and balloons. We don’t want it to feel at all corporate and I think our visitors appreciate that small and friendly atmosphere.”

Bakewell Baking Festival

Conclusion

The most successful food and drink festivals have evolved over time, crucially by listening to feedback from attendees. Hearing what your customer base wants and implementing changes that reflect their needs will ensure your event is a really tasty experience for everyone.