A Short Guide To Food Festivals For Restaurants

Food festivals are the secret marketing tool for restaurants, cafes, and eateries to attract a lot of new customers, get attention on social media, gain industry knowledge and feedback. All this more is accessible to an owner of an F&B business in just one place through food festivals. Because they offer such a holistic environment, they make for important avenues to learn more. The sheer amount of footfall they get make it imperative for any café or joint to participate in such festivals. Think of them as the goldmines of business opportunities.

While attending a food festival is a great business decision, it does require a lot of planning before you can put up your stall. Starting from considering which festival to attend to organising the actual operations of the D-Day, there is an N number of jobs to do. In this article, we help you find a way to decide which food festival would be the best to attend and how to do it.

• There are tens of food festival that occur across India, some of the more popular ones are:
  • The Grub Fest
  • World Street Food Fest
  • The Palate Fest
  • Asian Hawkers Market
  • Dessertarian Fest
  • National Street Food Festival
  • Great Indian Food Festival
  • The Food Truck Festival

Pitching a tent on all of them is not possible. Therefore, the first step is to decide which one to attend. For this, you need to get all the details of the event from the manager. Compare aspects like space, supplies, electricity, costing and venue.

Ms. Veronica, who has been managing bookings and events at https://www.chennaiconventioncentre.com, spoke to us about the food festivals hosted at their venue – “A convenient location, spacious event area and supportive amenities help in organising food festivals. A good experience that leaves an indelible mark on every guest is expected to be offered, that inspires guests to participate more. Food festivals are a great place to gain a large customer base for the organisers as well.”

• Research if the festival fits with your brand identity. Will have a footfall of a similar target audience as your restaurant? How successful was the festival the previous year? These are factors that should be considered to ensure your brand image stands out in the festival and gets you the business required.
• Reviews are vital for anything. Just like you would ask for a reference before picking a doctor, ask for a festival assessment from your peers. Question any restaurant owners who have attended previous food festivals on how their experience was and was it worth investing. Make your decision based on their answers.

When it comes to planning for the D-day, here is a basic checklist to follow:

• Create a small menu that includes only the best dishes because you won’t have the space to cook it all.
• Get a secure transport for all the days of the festival like a delivery van.
• Prep as much and as many of the dishes as you can get beforehand to ensure quick service.