I got into my first festival --Nedd some help

Buckscent · Mar 23, 2011

I got into my first festival. It is a small one to start out with. Last 2 years they have had between 10K-12K people. SO I am guessing 7K - 9K. It is a Friday and Saturday. They only allow 4 food vendors, How many people should I plan for?????? I saw a percentage on here before but can't seem to find it. I was going to do sandwiches, plates, burgers, sides and a couple other things. But now I think I will just do PP sandwiches, Smoked Sausage on a stick, fries, chicken finger baskets and maybe turkey legs. Thinking about fried oreos, twinkies and fried green beens.

Other vendors that I can remember are boy scouts that do traditional burders, dogs, chips and drinks. There is a sweet treat vendor and a beans and cornbread vendor that also does burgers, philly cheese steak and I forgot what else.

Here are some pics of my new rig:

rwoodling · Mar 23, 2011

Sounds good to me. PP is my bread and butter when it comes to big events. Most profit for your time and easy to store and prep large quantity. Been wanting to try turkey legs. Those should be a big hit. Good luck and let us know how you do.

Buckscent · Mar 23, 2011

Another question, say 33% come to my booth, which I have no idea if that is acurate or not. And there are 10K people(what the director said, might be a little high). How many turkey legs should I get vs pp?

HBMTN · Mar 23, 2011

I only have two festivals under my belt and they were done back to back weekends. The 1st was a Saturday 11am til 4pm and there was about in attendance. We had 4 people running mad the whole time. You say you are doing a small festival I thing that is huge.

The 2nd festival was Fri Sat Sun I did several different items but by far the PP was the money. Good Luck hope it works great for you, make sure you have lots of help.

Learnin Querve · Mar 23, 2011

Buckscent said:
Another question, say 33% come to my booth, which I have no idea if that is acurate or not. And there are 10K people(what the director said, might be a little high). How many turkey legs should I get vs pp?

I don't vend, but I talked at length with a turkey leg vendor on the main concourse (one of probably 15-20 booths selling turkey legs) at the Iowa State Fair last summer. He told me that they order, and plan their turkey leg cooks based on 1% of typical gate attendance. The state fair usually does close to one million attendees over the 10 day run in mid August.

Chris

PCDoctor_1979 · Mar 23, 2011

I don't think that you can assume that the all of the 10K attendees will eat a meal during the festival. I've been at festivals where the main crowd attractions do not match up with the lunch or dinner hour. It can make a big difference. Nice lookin' rig, BTW.

Mad About Que · Mar 24, 2011

i've got a good friend that pimps roasted corn, turkey legs and what have you. if its a normal crowd and number of food vendors, he plans on 3-4%. Drop the number of food vendors and he takes it to 6-7%.

Good weather and some smoke in the air... overall for 10k folks i'd plan on serving 500 to 600 if there's only 4 vendors. and if you're not used to it, then don't get crazy with the menu. you can sell anything at events like that and people will buy. so stick with what you know, and what you can do well.. better to be out of turkey legs and low on pork at 8:00 on a friday night than to have a trailer full of oreos and green beans on monday morning, wondering where you went wrong. ..

and 500 peeps at $6.. (sammy and a drink minimum..).. not a bad weekend. especially if its something that you are just starting with. and if its a bust... whats the cost on meat and stuff for 500?? not too much... in the grand scheme of things..

Big_Alvin · Mar 24, 2011

Sound advice thus far. i'd thought about what i'd would do and i'd go for the simple menu items. PP sounds like a winner to me. very nice rig you have there. i have a friend whose brother does a couple of fairs where all he sells is home made turkey sandwhiches and drinks, nothing else and he rakes in a bundle.

PorkQPine · Mar 24, 2011

I think you have a good idea with the pulled pork, sausage on a stick and turkey legs but if you are jammed you will be sorry you are trying to do all those fried things. I'd do garlic fries, they go like mad here but drop the twinkies, oreo's and green beans. Keep the menu simple and short.

rwoodling · Mar 24, 2011

I would go PP with a choice of beans, slaw or pasta salad, roll and an option for chips rather than a side. Turkey legs and drinks. KISS (Keep it simple stupid) Most bang for your buck and you can learn your rig and your groove without a huge workload. Again with PP you can have a ton of butts in a cooler or cambro ready to pull if your stock gets low at peak hours. You will not be disappointed. The worst thing that can happen is you run out of food, which means you sold it all and that ain't a bad thing. If you watch your sales the first day you should be able to average out the rest. Butts are cheap so go big or stay home.

kurtsara · Mar 24, 2011

HBMTN said:
I only have two festivals under my belt and they were done back to back weekends. The 1st was a Saturday 11am til 4pm and there was about ____ in attendance. We had 4 people running mad the whole time. You say you are doing a small festival I thing that is huge.

The 2nd festival was Fri Sat Sun I did several different items but by far the PP was the money. Good Luck hope it works great for you, make sure you have lots of help.

How many were there?

I am wondering what a huge festival is also

jbrink01 · Mar 24, 2011

Good looking rig! Anyway, I've done a few a year for 5 years. I'm doing one this weekend. PP is your money, sides are the cherry on the sundae. With your numbers, I'd take 70 pork butts (35 / day), beans, potato salad and slaw. I'd plan on feeding 1100 sandwiches, 700 meals, grossing $7100 and keeping $5,000 less labor costs and festival fees. Break-even would be 400 sandwiches.

HBMTN · Mar 25, 2011

kurtsara said:
How many were there?

I am wondering what a huge festival is also

Pure guess but I would say 1500 Fri, 3000-6000 Sat, 1000-2000 Sun

Jerk Pit Master · Mar 25, 2011

Unless you have personal knowledge of the event, please plan conservatively.

If possible do not buy food for day 2 until day 1 is over and buy from a store with easy return policies on the bread, drinks, etc. I've done many events where sales projections for day 1 took day 2 to achieve.

Watch the weather like a hawk and buy your food/supplies accordingly. Keep the menu as simple as possible first time out.

brotherbd · Mar 29, 2011

Buckscent how did it go?....

Hey Bucksent how did things turn out for your first time out.

Been looking for details what you decided to do and how things went.

I hope it all good news , but sometimes we learn more from the bad.

Both are good to share, share the joy, share the burden, get advice, filter and make the next run better.

Blessings,

Buckscent · Mar 29, 2011

brotherbd said:
Hey Bucksent how did things turn out for your first time out.

Been looking for details what you decided to do and how things went.

I hope it all good news , but sometimes we learn more from the bad.

Both are good to share, share the joy, share the burden, get advice, filter and make the next run better.

Blessings,

The festival is not until May 14th but wanted advise WAY ahead of time. Thanks Will let you all know how it goes

I got into my first festival --Nedd some help

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