Get Festive: A Survival Guide to Summer Festival Participation
Posted by estiator at 9 July, at 10 : 07 AM Print
By Constantine Kolitsas
Everyone loves a festival. Except me. Don’t get me wrong—I love attending festivals. I just hate being a part of them. And my business is frequently being asked to participate in them. Some are silly and a waste of time, such as a local library event where we were asked to be one of three or four restaurants serving “just some small plates” to 125 people. This was a very obvious ploy to hold an event without having to pay for food. No thanks; I’m in the “selling food” business, not in the “giving food away” business. And it’s not so much that it would be a huge loss of money for us, but that the last thing I want to do is to condition the organizations around us that when they want to have a fundraiser, they’ll never have to pay for food again. (I love to give, but not when the giving takes away from the revenue stream that allows me to give in the first place.)
And then there was the event that we attended last night: a kick-off to a county-wide four-day food festival hosted by Westchester Magazine; a prestigious, beautiful color glossy that is pretty much the trendsetter for the affluent cities, towns and hamlets that stretch from just beyond Manhattan’s northern border to what the locals refer to as upstate New York.
The tickets for the events (which are held over four days) range in price from $60/person for the first night’s “Bartender Shake Off” event to hundreds of dollars for a wine-pairing dinner with a renowned sommelier and a handful of local chefs. The point here (and it’s an important one) is that even at the lowest ticket price, you’re going to get people who will likely come in and spend a good amount of money at your restaurant. And this was the case last night with us. We saw a significant number of people that had been to Greca Mediterranean Kitchen (my upscale Greek restaurant located in White Plains), and they were glowing about their experience there (fortunately, each time with several other people who had not been that were also at our stand). So the exposure was not wasted on people who would never visit us in the first place. For every person who wouldn’t be a customer, there were 30 or so who are prime potential guests. This was our demographic. And we made the best of it, chatting them up and driving home the talking points about our restaurant.
The pièce de resistance came at the end when our beverage director, Frankie Rodriguez, took home the trophy. But long before he won the shake-off, the event was a winner.
With all of this in mind, I put together a “Survival Guide” for anyone planning to or thinking about participating in one of the many summer festivals that take place between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
TO BE OR NOT TO BE
If I hate participating in festivals in general, it’s because they are so much work to plan; to meet Health Department needs, to set up and break down, and to cook for. Unless it’s going to bring me business, it’s more trouble than it’s worth. So when deciding to participate in an event, make sure you do your homework. Understand the demographic of the attendees; understand the theme of the festival. Does it fit your brand? Will the exposure bring dollars through your doors?
WHETHER THE WEATHER IS WITH YOU
You can’t control the weather, but the weather will determine so many things, so you need to be aware of it and plan. A rainy day will mean far fewer attendees (there’s a reason they call it a “wash out”), and a sunny day will bring them out in droves. Of course, rain will mean you need to have some cover if it’s not a part of the setup provided. And a clear sky will mean you’ll need hats and sunblock. Will rain have an impact on how you transport and set up your equipment? Is your space on bare dirt or on some type of asphalt or cement?
SCOPE IT OUT
Anyone who’s ever done any kind of festival will tell you that the most frustrating part of the whole process is not knowing the space and how you will set up. So why not just ease the frustration by riding out to the venue and seeing for yourself? Take pictures. Ask questions. “Where will I unload? Where is the water source? Is there ice available? Where are the bathrooms? Is there power at the stands, and if so, how many outlets? What kind of equipment have vendors used in the past?” Another thing to know is how many vendors will participate and who those vendors are… You want to make a good impression. You want people to walk away from the event with the firm belief that you were the best one there.
THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS
Nearly all of these events are organized (or disorganized) by organizations that know little about your business and how you operate. For example, last night’s event was very well run, but there were still soooo many details that were miscommunicated or completely missing. To start, one of the organizers told us that we would not be providing samples of our cocktail to the festivalgoers; just to the six judges. Wrong. It’s a good thing that I reviewed that part of the outline we were sent months earlier. In that outline they called for ONE THOUSAND samples of the cocktail. They also called for one thousand food samples. We prepared for about 500 cocktail samples and the full number of food samples. Our stand was non-stop, and at the end, we had about a third of the food samples left and about a third of the cocktail samples. Again, we WON the competition, so that tells you how much the organizers overestimated the amount of food we would need. Keep in mind, their agenda is to look good and promote their own brand. A bunch of stands running out of food an hour before the end of the event makes them look bad. And they really don’t care if you have wasted food or cock- tails, do they? They’re not in it for you; they’re in it for them. And that’s all well and good; just be sure to factor that in.
MARKETING
Remember that while you are there to serve food, your real purpose for participating is to market yourself. Have a banner professionally created. You’ll use it again and again over the course of many years. Spend a couple of hundred dollars on postcards that drive home the points you want the visitors to take with them. And put a QR code that links to your menu! (We had people salivating over our menu who had never even been there just from scanning the QR code on the postcard we created.) Bring takeout menus. Decorate the table with flowers and tchotchkes. And present the food nicely. Finally, print up business cards that allow visitors to fill in their name, address, phone number and email so they can drop them into a fishbowl and you can reach out to them for special events. Finally, make sure your name and logo are represented adequately at the table. Print up one or two 8½ x 11 marketing pieces and place them in see-through acrylic stands. Many people will come with laser focus on your food and not even know where it came from. Don’t make it easy for them to not notice your restaurant’s name!
SETUP
Be kind and fun and generous to the facilities people there. They can find you that extra extension cord when yours is left back at the restaurant. They can score you a cart when you’re loading and unloading. And they will look the other way when you need to bring your vehicle into the forbidden areas that will make your schlepping a bit easier.
THE ESCAPE PLAN
As soon as you get there, ask the facilities people questions about breaking down. Where do you dump leftover ice? Where are the garbages? What time can you bring your car through to load up? Can you reserve a cart or tip someone to bring one to you as soon as the hour draws near? You will be exhausted at the end of the event from talking and schlepping. Try to have your escape route mapped out and have your ducks in a row to make an efficient and clean getaway.
THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT
Just as when they come to visit your restaurant, treat the health department as your friend. You don’t want to get people sick. You want to have a great event. Do things right and do the right thing. In other words, don’t take shortcuts with regards to HAACP procedures. Pack your food in ice. Bring it in coolers. It will hold temp if you keep the cooler closed when you’re not accessing it. Have sanitary wipes available. Bring gloves. You know the drill!
SAMPLES
Food samples and offerings should be inexpensive and simple to transport/hold/ serve but also interesting and delicious. For this event, our first (we just opened in October), we didn’t want to cook or have something that needed to stay hot as it was too complicated. So we decided to bring a sampling of our Santorini fava dip with fried pita chips. We knew that anyone who likes hummus (and who doesn’t?) would love the fava. And we knew most people didn’t know what fava is, so there is the opportunity to talk about the product rather than just have it sitting there for people to grab. The response was through the roof. Every- one loved it. They loved also that it is vegan, that it is super healthy, and they loved the story (the volcanic island that produces the best yellow split peas in the world). The best compliment were the people who kept coming back for seconds (and many for thirds, fourths, and fifths).
