Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
The definition of a festival is 'a celebration that takes place over a period
of time
.
'
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That period of time is usually
3-
5 days and includes the weekend.
Festivals, and especially food festivals, are prime tourist attractions.
They appeal to travel agencies, coach tour operators and primary tourist
providers. Outside of the festival providers of local accommodation, food
services, transport and souvenir shops all benefit as well as the secondary
providers such as food producers, petrol or gas stations, security providers,
local service suppliers and general retailers.
Donald Vaughan and Eric Peterson's book
Amazing Festivals,
100'
is of
Hometown Celebrations
10
is a starting point to look at the different ideas and
opportunities in developing food festivals.
Planning a festival
Festival planning is a skill in its own right. It takes a year-long commitment
to plan an annual festival event. A committee is needed and organizers need
to be prepared to delegate. The best way to develop a festival is to have
sub-committees that are focused on set tasks such as:
•
Fund raising;
•
Festival security, this is becoming more important each year;
•
Vendor planning;
•
Entertainment;
•
Guest hospitality;
•
The parade;
•
Partnerships;
•
Marketing;
•
Onsite services.
A festival will have a range of activities and someone needs to be pre-
pared to manage each one along with the support of a committee. The
Government of Western Australia
11
has produced an excellent guide on fes-
tival planning and we recommend any event organizer to use this as a tem-
plate for planning their own festival.
Concessions/vendors
To be successful, a festival will have to include other businesses pro-
viding attractions and food that cannot be provided by the event organ-
izer. This is where concessions and vendors become an important part of
the mix. Festival crowds will expect a variety of food for sale and a var-
iety of retail activities, whilst the organizer can look at these as an extra
source of profit.
Vendors can come from the non-profit sector via local clubs and charities
or from the profit sector. There is often a ready local source of small busi-
nesses who would want to be a part of the success.
A festival organizer will need to produce an application form and set
a fee schedule for the event. Being flexible in the fee structure is often a mis-
take. Set a fee and keep to it is the secret to success.
