I love a good food and drink festival and I’m certainly not the only one! Did you know that almost half (46%) of Aussies refer to themselves as foodies? It’s no coincidence that the event community has responded to our hunger for food-fuelled events. The Eventbrite platform has seen a 47% increase in food and drink events over recent years and is showing no sign of slowing down.
I’ve been fortunate enough to work with a wide range of fantastic food & drink festivals at Eventbrite and have seen these events go from strength to strength as food culture continues to grow locally. Whether you’re already a food & drink organiser or are considering starting a new event, here are five things I’ve learned from working with food and drink festivals in Australia:
1. PR and social media go hand-in-hand
The hunger for food events exists, but how do you get seen by the right audience? A cohesive PR and social media strategy is a must when it comes to promoting food events. Mouth-watering food pictures on social is one thing, but you need to make sure you’re driving traffic to your website/ticketing page and converting to sales or registrations. There are a number of well established food media outlets around now (think Time Out, The Urban List, Broadsheet, Good Food) that you should focus a PR strategy on, as well as supplying high-quality food pictures for use on their social media accounts.
In addition to these publications and websites, there may also be social media only accounts that complement your style of event that you could speak to about featuring your event. For example, @melbournepopups has over 70k followers and regularly features food & drink pop-ups and local events. To locate accounts that could support your message, look at the hashtags commonly used by these popular accounts to kickstart your research. Incorporating these for your city (e.g. #melbournefood or #sydneyeats) is also a great way to get noticed by local foodies.
Read More: How to Use Instagram to Promote Your Food & Drink Event
2. People love to meet the makers
The last thing you want people to say when visiting your food vendors is “we should have just gone to the restaurant”. Attendees are looking for a unique and more personal experience at an event. Providing the opportunity for guests to meet and learn from the masters of the trade can create these kind of share-worthy experiences that will have them talking about your event well after it’s over.
Encourage owners, winemakers/brewers, and brand ambassadors to run demonstrations or sell the story of their cooking/drink brand at their stalls. Hands-on classes and workshops are also perfect upsells at food & drink festivals as everyone from novices to experts are interested in how others prepare their signature dishes. A great example of this was from the recent Melbourne Tomato Festival, where chef Guy Grossi hosted a live cooking demo to a crowd of Italian food lovers — an experience that you could not get in his restaurant or at your average cooking class.
Melbourne Tomato Festival Cooking Demo
3. Trends sell tickets
Food trends are hotter than ever and when it comes to food festivals, they absolutely sell tickets. Just look at 2016’s doughnut and croissant obsession. The craze for pastry has seen events such as the Flour Market attract queues for miles as people scramble to get in before the baked goods are gone. It’s also spawned dedicated events such as the Donut & Beer Festival which is getting plenty of attention in the food media because it ticks two boxes when it comes to on-trend food and drink. You can capitalise on these trends by securing vendors that sell these hot items and likely have their own massive following on social media.
4. Curation is key
While it is good to have red hot vendors and trendy food & drink offerings, it’s also important to carefully curate your festival and make sure that your vendors/exhibitors make sense together. If you’re hosting a cheese and wine festival for example, don’t jam it full of doughnut stalls even if they are popular. It’s also important not to accept every application just to fill space. Don’t try and fill empty spaces with common market stalls such as candles or jewellery for a cheese festival — if it doesn’t make sense to your event, it will feel awkward. Seek out quality vendors related to wine and cheese, such as cheese board or knife suppliers if you need additional stalls.
5. Target your marketing
When hosting a food festival, it’s easy to think that because everyone likes food, you should advertise to everyone. Creating targeted marketing at a specific audience is more likely to drive conversions and will lead to a higher return on investment. For example, if you’re hosting an all-ages food festival centred on a picnic theme, you might drive higher conversions by targeting older Millennials with children. This can also help shape your entertainment and value proposition to create an event that appeals to your target audience.
