A creative solution for the waste problem on festivals

10-3-2016

Everyone who ever visited a festival does know the waste problem. In no time the whole festival grounds is covered with empty plastic bottles, little pieces of paper and napkins. ThinkScream has the solution: 15 minutes of free Wi-Fi for those who throw their waste in a special bin!  lees verder

Holi Day – Festival of Colours at your plate by Soenil Bahadoer

8-3-2016

Soenil Bahadoer created a dish based on Holi Phagwa, the Hindu spring festival. Like the ‘Festival of colours runs’ he creates his dish ‘scallop – pumpkin – Madame Jeanette’ with flying colours. Patrick Meis made the above video. lees verder

Eating in a piece of art at restaurant Rebelz aan de Rotte

3-3-2016

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At restaurant ‘Rebelz aan de Rotte’ in Rotterdam (the Netherlands), you eat in a piece of art and support a social purpose.

The 27th of February restaurant ‘Rebelz aan de Rotte’ opened. An extraordinary restaurant in many ways: the interior, the kitchen and the staff. The restaurant seats about 70 guests that can go there to have lunch, high tea or dinner. They also cater meetings and parties. In the summer there will be a terrace on a pontoon where people can dock their boats.

lees verder

Nutella Festival

29-2-2016

  • Frietje Nutella van Piet Friet
  • Frietje Nutella van Piet Friet
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What began as a joke on Facebook has now turned into the first Nutella Festival of the Netherlands, wich will take place on the 16th of July in Amsterdam. lees verder

Food festivals: prevent queues or make sure your guests enjoy the queue…

19-2-2016

  • Credits: @dominiqueansel’s Instagram.

Guest blog of Leonie van Spronsen, living and working in Paris, heard her colleagues complain about the long queues during the ‘Taste of Paris’ last week. Due to the start of the festival season last weekend with the ‘Taste of Holland’, Leonie blogs about the annoyance of queues. It is not too late to do something about them yet..

Over the past few years they have been popping up all over the world, these “foodie-festivals”we mean, they are either indoor or outdoor, focus on astonishing gastronomy or on variations of our favourite snacks. I personally feel that this is a great development, as the average foodie enjoys these more than a dance festival. But much to our dismay, queueing up  has become a regular activity at all these “foodie-festivals”.

Every small but delicious bite you want to try is ruined by a spectacular waiting line. At ‘Taste of Paris’ the average waiting time was 30 to 45 minutes for basically every stand. But also last summer, while visiting ‘Rollende Keukens’we had to conclude that the festival has had its best days, the terrain gets way too busy these days and this takes the fun out of it for us and many others. Obviously these huge crowds are great for the organizers and illustrates the large demand for these types of events, but the negative effect of over-crowdedness will clearly affect your event and the future of your event quickly.

So how come this situation arises on these festivals? The fact that there are long lines at amateur festivals is to be expected, their organizers usually aren’t specialized in the logistics of F&B. Besides, true hospitality is usually not their main goal. But these “foodie-festivals” consists mostly of hospitality entrepreneurs am I right? How is then still possible that these festivals create such un-hospitable situations? Hospitality is their core business!

For the future of the “foodie-festival”it seems to be very important that we solve this ‘queueing up-situation’ because if not.. Will they still be as popular as they are or will people get sick of it soon?

You can either solve this or accept the lines and entertain your guests!

In regards to entertaing your queueing customers, festival entrepreneurs could take some inspiration from baker Dominique Ansel. With two lines a day in front of his bakery (early morning for the cronuts and at 4 PM for the milk cookie-shots) this is the man that can tell you a thing or two about lines and people in lines. He excels in entertaining his waiting customers, like last weekend when he personally handed out roses to ‘his line’ for Valentine’s Day at his bakery in New York City. But on any given day, him and his team hand out warm madeleines, hot chocolate milk, appel cider or lemonade if it’s hot out.

At the opening of his bakery in Japan they even went as far as doing social media challenges between the lines in New York and Tokyo. They arranged for breakdancers to entertain the crowd and when it got really sunny and hot, they sprayed their customers with water sprays to keep them cool.

You can check out our article about the opening of the Tokyo bakery on our website hospitalitytrends.eu.

So consider entertaining your guests while they wait and thus make sure your “foodie-festival” visitor keeps coming back for more. We would love to visit festivals without lines but if that’s too much to ask.. at least keep them entertained!

Leonie van Spronsen

 

The KarTent: the disposable festival tent made of cardboard

17-2-2016

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Every year one out of four festival visitors leaves their tent behind on several festival campsites all over the Netherlands. The amount of waste that this creates is bad for the environment. The solution is simple: from now on you can camp in a cardboard. lees verder

Do you create the ‘Ultimate Bite’ for Hellmann’s?

16-2-2016

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Hospitality entrepreneurs in Belgium and the Netherlands are challenged by Hellmann’s to make ‘The Ultimate Bite’. The winner gets a commercial campaign for his/her own business,  to the value of €5.000,=, at The Ultimate Bite live finale on the 23rd of May in the ‘Kookfabriek’ in Amsterdam. You can sign up till the 20th of March 2016 on UltimateBite.com.

Read more about the conditions in the rest of the article. lees verder

Fries with…

16-2-2016

  • Frietje Nutella van Piet Friet
  • Friet met kaviaar van Tante Nel
  • Friet met kaviaar van Tante Nel
  • Thrill Grill's friet. Credits: HOTSPOTHUNTER.COM
  • Frietje Nutella van Piet Friet
  • Frietje Nutella van Piet Friet
  • Friet met kaviaar van Tante Nel
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One of the unique characteristics of fries is that you can endlessly combine them with different ingredients. Fries with caviar, Parmesan cheese, truffle mayonnaise, chocolate, Nutella and stews. In the Netherlands, fries are very popular. We eat them with mayonnaise or ketchup but also with ‘mayonnaise, curry sauce and chopped onions’, with hot peanut sauce or sometimes even with truffle mayonnaise but the fries noted below aren’t often on the menu! In response to an article in the Dutch AD newspaper about Tante Nel (aunt Nel), the haute friture shop in Rotterdam, we made a list of unique and weird combinations with fries. ^Bram Kosterink lees verder

Foodhall 88 – First pop-up food hall in Holland.

15-2-2016

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Foodhall 88, the first pop-up food hall in the Netherlands will open the 18th of February in Tilburg. At this moment the lobby of building 88 at the Spoorzone (Railway zone) is still under construction but as from next Thursday you’re supposed to smell fish, meat and vegetables here. Foodhall 88 is open until late April.

lees verder

Brewery Oedipus is going to age beer in whiskey barrels of Jameson

10-2-2016

This week Brewery Oedipus starts with brewing a craft beer that will be aged in Jameson whiskey barrels. Hoppy and tangy Saison with smooth influences of Irish whiskey. The beer will be available in a limited edition as from April 2016.

For centuries beer and whiskey can be found on the bar alongside, but never before have the flavours been so intertwined as with the collaboration between the brewery Oedipus from Amsterdam and world famous Irish whiskey brand Jameson. The Netherlands is one of the first countries worldwide to start a collaboration with Jameson. lees verder

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