Cleanwaste’s Post

Our first “big” music festival was a great experience for Fink. Here are a couple of things we learned… ✅ Fresh food sells. We were one of a few traders who made all their products from scratch including sauces. We were amazed how few traders were using fresh meat and the overeliance on bought-in sauces. ✅Efficiency is everything. We adapted our menu so we could serve a customer every 20 seconds. ✅The trader community is amazing and will always help their neighbour out of the 💩 ✅Team morale is important. It’s a real slog and if the team are having a good time it makes the weekend much more enjoyable. ✅Matching the food offer to the demographic of the festival is key. ❌ Using the “middle-man’s” EPOS systems and getting paid is a nightmare! A month has passed since the event and we still haven’t received all the funds. ❌Cash flow. If traders are made to wait for funds after every event, how can they enaure they can buy stock, pay staff and sustain a busy calendar of festivals. This would be avoided if they were still able to use their own till systems. ❌Can you have a healthy work life balance in the festival catering scene? 100 hour weeks and very little sleep really takes it’s toll! ❌Commissions are far too high and this translates into inflated tariffs for the festival gooer Ultimately this is a high-risk/high reward game and we’ll be using festivals to diversify our revenue streams. If you have any festivals you can recommend for Fink, please comment below 👇

Already, 50 UK festivals have announced they will either postpone, cancel, or completely shut down in 2024. Without immediate intervention, we could see the number of lost festivals exceed 100 this year due to rising and unpredictable costs. In early February, the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) launched the "5% For Festivals" campaign, advocating for a temporary VAT reduction on festival tickets to prevent more closures. This campaign aimed to raise awareness among festival-goers about the challenges faced by promoters over the past five years and encouraged them to lobby their MPs for support. However, the campaign is currently on hold as the country prepares for a general election. The solution is clear: the UK Government needs to provide temporary relief by reducing VAT on ticket sales from 20% to 5% for the next three years. This would give festival promoters the breathing room they need to recover and continue offering vibrant cultural events. For more details, read the full story https://lnkd.in/d3wPUR7r

Over 100 of the nation’s festivals could disappear in 2024 without intervention. 21 UK festivals have now announced a postponement, cancellation or complete closure in 2024. Cotswolds-based Nibley Festival has announced that this year’s event will be its last, soon after Bradford’s Bingley Festival announced that its 2024 edition will not go ahead. Promoters of both festivals have cited rapidly rising production costs as the reason why running their event is no longer viable. Temporary support from the UK Government - lowering VAT from 20% to 5% on ticket sales for the next three years - is all that's needed to give festival promoters the space they need to rebuild. Read here: https://lnkd.in/e396nCrF

Well, the 68th #UKCoachRally and #nationalcoachweek 2024 are both over. Our thanks in all directions to all CPT members who came to participate and to our #BCH partner ABTOT Limited. But we can't miss the chance here to stress that for CPT's coaching members, every week is coach week. One high profile illustration of this is how, in just over a month, nearly 20K festival goers will enjoy convenient and affordable travel to #Glastonbury Festival by coach (20% more reaching the summer’s biggest music festival travel this way than they did last year). Official coach travel partner of the festival, National Express LTD has added 34 more departures this year to meet demand, taking the total number of locations served to 109. Tickets include a generous luggage allowance of 20kg in the hold, plus one piece of soft hand luggage. National Express also sets up a pop-up coach station within 100 metres of the festival gates, so revellers haven’t got far to go with their festival gear to secure the best spots to pitch-up. Alongside regional coach services, there will also be a fleet of double decker electric buses on a high-frequency shuttle #bus service between #Bristol Bus Station and Worthy Farm. As we've said here many times, coach is good for the environment as the least carbon-intensive public transport option. So it's encouraging to learn that John Boughton, commercial director at National Express can say, “Demand for affordable and reliable public transport has never been greater, and that includes travel to the summer’s hottest festivals and events." Visit https://lnkd.in/ePDtzkHw for more information about coach travel to Glastonbury.   #AccessAllAreas #DrivingBritainForward

This can actually save our events industry and we should look at how other countries reduce vat for events. Germany is a perfect example of how the governments helps this industry and you can see that with much cheaper tickets for all their events in comparison to UK.

Download Festivals Adds Names to Line-Up

Great to see Music Week highlighting the embattled festival sector again with comment from AIF CEO John Rostron. https://lnkd.in/egPTJKxw The problems facing the festival sector need to be acknowledged and addressed. These inflationary supply chain issues, exacerbated by other factors, are decimating the industry with 100 festivals expected to close this year. The government can help this culturally important and traditionally profitable sector with a few simple steps. An immediate step would be to cut VAT on tickets to 5% - as the industry is campaigning for at https://lnkd.in/e3es__sV. As the new Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Lisa Nandy must acknowledge the value of music festivals (and their importance to a large supply chain) and take swift action.

Last week team Proud Events attended Association of Independent Festivals Congress and it a great day of lightening talks, debates and networking. In the opening address AIF CEO John Rostron announced the 5% for Festivals campaign which is an awareness campaign that seeks to inform festival-goers about the problems that music festival promoters have faced over the last 5 years, encouraging them to contact their MPs to lobby for a much needed VAT reduction on tickets. As someone who has been in the industry for over 15 years I can confidently 2023 was one of the most challenging years across the industry and the festival sector is in desperate need of support. With rising costs in the industry combined with the cost of living crisis affecting ticket sales an overwhelming number of independent festivals won't return for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. AIF CEO John Rostron said: “We really are at a critical point for the UK’s festival sector. Five years ago, it would have been impossible to imagine that promoters would have to endure something as damaging as the Covid-19 pandemic – but many of them did, without passing the inevitable cost onto the consumer. To think that, since then, they have had to manage the effects of Brexit, war in Ukraine, inflation and an energy crisis is staggering. That festival-goers were able to enjoy some of the fantastic events they did in 2023 is testament to the resilience and passion of those promoters. But we lost 36 festivals last year, and with six festivals having postponed activity in 2024 or closed the gates for good, we are on track to see well over double the number of casualties this year. “UK festivals need time to recover and rebuild. They need help from our Government. A reduction in VAT on festival tickets from 20% to 5% for three years is an evidence-based, simple, sensible remedy that would ease the financial burden on promoters enough for them to return to health. We need this action now.” Couldn't have put it better myself. Please contact your MP to lobby for this reduction. Visit the website: https://lnkd.in/ebQ87_Mf

Did you know Edmonton is Canada’s “Festival City,” with more than 50 unique festivals each year? These include the Edmonton Fringe Festival, Edmonton Folk Music Festival, Taste of Edmonton, Edmonton Heritage Festival, and more. We need to do more than just cheerlead these wonderful events. our #YEGbusinesses, need to actively benefit from them. To sustain this momentum we gained during the playoffs, we have outlined six actionable steps for you to take to elevate your business to the next level: 1. Prep Your Space🫧: Maintain clean, attractive facilities to impress customers and enhance their experience. 2. Staff Appropriately🤵: Ensure sufficient, friendly, and knowledgeable staff to provide excellent service and foster customer loyalty. 3. Engage with Visitors🏢: Create a welcoming atmosphere and build long-lasting relationships by making visitors feel they belong. 4. Offer Specials🍾: Use themed menu items, drink specials, and exclusive discounts to attract customers and encourage reviews. 5. Promote the City 🏙️ : Train staff to recommend other local businesses and attractions, boosting the city’s economy. 6. Be Present Online📱: Leverage social media to amplify your business’s presence and engage with customers. Get involved in summer festivals to create a positive feedback loop that benefits both businesses and the community! Read the full article on how to keep the momentum going here: https://lnkd.in/grG8gZfy

Heading to Glasto this weekend? Read our top tips for surviving the festival season