Agri-Entertainment or Agri-Tourism - Food Tourism: A Practical Marketing Guide - page 128

7. Gilroy Garlic Festival: one of the biggest food festivals in the USA, this
festival in Gilroy, California, celebrates the aromatic allium known as garlic.
Visitors discover garlic cooking demonstrations, garlic braiding classes and
an array of garlic-infused food, including garlic ice cream, garlic popcorn
and garlic mussels ( http://gilroygarlicfestival.com ) .
8. Cayman Cookout: 15 the Caribbean's biggest culinary event, this food fes-
tival on Grand Cayman Island celebrates all the flavours of the islands -
cooked outdoors in paradise. Guests find cooking showcases by famous
chefs, culinary tours of the island, catamaran cookouts and more.
9. Hatch Valley Chile Festival: New Mexico's Hatch Valley is known
for its production of spicy Hatch chiles, and these red firecrackers take
centre stage at this spicy celebration. Chile eating competitions, cook-
offs, carnival rides and a huge assortment of spicy food to sample ( www.
hatchchilefest.com ) .
10. The World Gourmet Summit: 16 this gourmet festival takes place in
Singapore each year. Sample the most sought-after flavours in the world,
from fine wines to ethnic specialities, and attend celebrity cooking demon-
strations and workshops taught by master chefs.
Annual festivals with a food opportunity
Every year there are hundreds of local festivals celebrated around the world
that have a food tourism opportunity. The astute food marketer will develop
these as part of their marketing package.
The key is to understand the 'essence' of what the festival should
achieve. Recently we attended an annual Cherry Festival. Our expect-
ation was that the 'essence' of the festival would revolve around the
cherry. The festival was busy and must have had over 100 stallholders.
There were three stalls selling cherries and we could find no education
or storytelling focused on the fruit. This missed opportunity meant
the festival was a 'me too' festival and did not encourage the visitor to
come again the next year.
Festivals that do not take the opportunity to make the 'product' the hero
will be short-lived festivals. They may make a short-term profit, but food
tourism is about enriching the consumer experience, not selling boxes of
produce.
Festival opportunities include the following.
Halloween
This has been a popular festival season in the USA for many years and many
think it was developed as an American festive event. This is a misconception
as the event is based on early Celtic harvest rituals. Some believe it goes back
earlier than that and is based on Italian farming rituals.
This seasonal event also has its own trade show held in January every
year in the USA. The trade show provides all the novelty items required to
make a festival event and should be attended by anyone planning to make
this a festival on the farm. www.halloweenpartyexpo.com