Managing Music Festival Food and Beverage Vendor Reliability.

Every multi-day music festival needs to feed and water its festival-goers and organisers should be able to deliver a reliable quality service through the vendors they appoint. What processes and measures are required to select and monitor food and beverage vendors that will satisfy festival-goer needs and expectations.

A leading compliant from festival-goers about music festivals they attend is often the quality and reliability of the food and beverage vendors on a site. Issues like opening hours, running out of food or drinks, the quality on offer, and overpriced offerings. What steps can organisers take to ensure that the food and beverage vendors they select are reliable in delivering quality products in a timely manner that give festival-goers value for money.

Vendor Selection.
Many organisers have the luxury of vendor pitches being oversubscribed, which ensures that that can choose the best options. When reviewing applications, organisers need to consider key aspects like previous festival experience, particularly high-volume capabilities. The menus and pricing are also a key consideration to ensure that a range of different food group options are available at different price points to cater for varying festival-goer budgets. Once the vendors have been selected using an event management software system like Festival-Pro can automate every aspect of the vendor logistics including scheduling, passes, contracts, health and safety compliance and insurance cover for example.

Legal Compliance.
During the application process, it is essential that every food and beverage vendor has submitted evidence of all the necessary permits and licences so they can legally operate at the festival. Additional documents may include proof of adequate and appropriate insurance cover. Most importantly, will be evidence of food safety hygiene compliance along with staff hygiene training records, for example.

Service Standards and SLAs.
Part of every contract with vendors should include a Service Level Agreement (SLA) which specifies the obligations of vendors whilst attending the event. An SLA will typically include minimum and maximin hours of operation, service delivery targets (maximum wait time), stock availability commitments along with menu and pricing obligations. Other aspects that may be included in SLAs are the vendors' commitment to eco-friendly waste management and overall sustainability standards they will be expected to meet. With increasing use of technology in POS systems, vendors will almost certainly be expected to have the capability to offer scanned payments as well as contactless ordering via Apps. An SLA will also include potential penalties for breaches of hygiene regulations, stock out situations or late set up for example.

Timing and Event Schedule Adherence.
Organisers will provide every vendor with detailed logistics plans that include specific arrival times, entrance gate numbers and pitch space location along with passes for staff. Organisers may be arranging hundreds of other vendors and contractors to enter a site for their set up, and any divergence form scheduled times can have a significant adverse impact on operations. A music festival will have opening times often dictated by local authorities, and vendors will be given specific hours of operation when they are expected to offer food and beverages to festival-goers. Adherence to these times is essential and should be monitored by organisers.

Quality Product Delivery.
An organiser can make arrangements to set up a live review or rating system for vendors, possibly through their festival app. Incentives can be given to festival-goers to encourage them to provide a score or review on each vendor they visit. The data collected could include price, delivery time, and most importantly the quality of the product delivered. If this data is collected in real time, it enables organisers to address any underperforming vendor straightaway so that issues can be immediately rectified. It is preferable to do this during the event rather than trying to address poor reviews that do not get posted until after an event has finished.

For festival organisers planning their next event using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics including a dedicated vendor module. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, site planning, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

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