Summer festivals are big business. There are hundreds of them, large and small, taking place every year in the UK. They’re a chance for customers to enjoy good music, good food, and a generally pleasant atmosphere.
If you’re looking to cater to the demand for food and drink through a food stall, then there are a number of steps you might take to optimise your catering operation. In many cases, you can drive up productivity and service speed with the help of just a few changes to the way you approach planning and running your stall.
Choosing a festival
Major festivals might seem like an obvious choice. But it’s usually best to start small. That way, you can get a feel for what works and what doesn’t – and your risk will be lower. You might look at food festivals, like Taste of Scilly, Pub in the Park, or the Edinburgh Food Festival. Or, you might think about music festivals.
Look for festivals where there’s likely to be high demand for the product you’re selling. Is your food easy to eat? Is it priced such that it will appeal to festivalgoers? How far can you reasonably travel? The answers to these questions will help you determine which festival matches your stall.
Figure out your costs
Setting up a food festival is cheaper than setting up a restaurant. However, you might still end up spending £10,000 or more. Establish a budget, and divide it between your power supply, the cooking equipment, and the stall itself. You might also need to pay for a pitch at the festival in question. You might cut costs by selling from a repurposed shipping container rather than a vehicle.
There’s also the cost of staff and training. If you’re selling food that’s difficult to cook, then you might have to pay staff more. It might be more cost-effective to pay a skilled cook to create and serve food quickly and consistently than to pay several unskilled cooks to do it slowly and poorly.
Legal considerations
If you’re serving food, then you’ll generally need to be appropriately licensed and registered with a local health authority. You might also have to demonstrate to the festival organisers that you have the appropriate paperwork to hand, and that you aren’t going to bring the occasion into disrepute.
Marketing your stall
If your stall is going to attract custom, you’ll need to make your would-be customers aware that it exists. You can do this through the right signage, and by designing the menu such that it’s legible from a distance. Provide options for vegan diners, and those with other specialised requirements – or, specialise in doing one kind of dish very well. There’s a reason that KFC doesn’t try to sell beef burgers!
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