4 Event Ideas You May Not Have Thought Of

Festivals
In Hampshire, the owners of Newlyns Farm Shop have been running an annual food festival for 11 years – usually in July. Last year, the lambing and food two-day event took place over a May weekend and 2,000 people came each day. Children made their own pasta, iced cupcakes in the shapes of sheep and pigs and there was a butchery demo. There’s also an indoor Christmas Fair every November where customers can order their turkey or goose.

Co-owner, Abby Janaway said, “Some farm shops do a huge number of events but it can be a logistical problem. You will alienate your regular customers if they arrive to shop and the car park is full. You need more staff, too.”

Talks and supper clubs
Eighteen miles outside Edinburgh, at the Archerfield Walled Garden retail complex in East Lothian, they’ve been running supper clubs since October 2013 to build awareness of the restaurant and their suitability as a venue. The evening consists of a three-course meal for about £30 and sometimes an author talk. While young people in cities love to meet strangers at supper clubs, manager Ian Stokes advised, “Social tables don’t work particularly when you have guests on their own. And people don’t like to be rushed to finish their main course because the speaker is coming on. Offer the best food and best service as it’s a showcase for the business. And unless you’re serving food in the evening, don’t expect it to be particularly profitable.”

Samplings and tutorials
In the January issue of Speciality Food, Adrian Beale of Buckley & Beale wrote that sampling can be the most important part of your retail operation provided you use the right person to give out the samples and use it for market research. Free, drop-in tastings can be more popular than you bargained for, warn Booths, who on occasion have had to introduce tickets. Have you considered turning your free sampling into chargeable entertainment? One of La Fromagerie’s most successful events was a butter tutorial where many different styles and recipes were tasted, from smoked, spiced and seaweed butters to butter recipes like beurre blanc. If you plan tasting tutorials, use a grower or producer with in-depth knowledge and let attendees taste as the expert talks so they can appreciate what is being said and ask questions.

Cookery classes and kitchen demos
If yours is a larger food retail complex where restaurant, café, farm and gift shop are all on one site, a cookery school can be a great awareness raiser for the other areas of your business. For example, students can source their ingredients from your farm shop. Skilled staff from your butchery, bakery and commercial kitchens can give masterclasses, reminding consumers these facilities are on-site. The cookery school at Suffolk Food Hall, Ipswich, has a glass surround so passing shoppers see classes in action and are prompted into booking.