We sat down with a group of KERB Traders and spoke about what made festivals work for some and not for others. Here’s some of the stuff we chatted about.

It’s a totally different ball game to running a lunch time market, you’re essentially starting up another business.

Pick your festivals selectively and make sure that they suit your business. If you’re selling pretty high end stuff don’t go to a Taylor Swift concert; those kids are unlikely to want to try something different than pizza or burgers.

Speed is super important and, depending on the festival, you’ll get rushes/surges of people. The rushes may be around lunch time, dinner time, before the headliner plays, after the headliner finishes and so on. It’s not as simple as just selling constantly as you’ll have down time. Thus, when it’s busy you have to get as much food out as possible. If you’ve got a long queue you’re losing money and customers will just go elsewhere.

People generally start buying around Friday evening. Saturday is the best day for trading and Sundays are a bit quieter, so plan your rota’s and prep accordingly.

Get as much information from the festival as possible. Maria from Makatcha’s rough formula for how much food they should bring is:

Number of people at the festival ÷ 2 ÷ number of traders = Estimated portions (+ bring a little on top as contingency)

For example: 100,000 people attending ÷ 2 ÷ 30 traders = 1666 portions + 100-150 portions as contingency

Total: 1800 portions

Should you do a festival if you can’t afford for it to go wrong? Absolutely not. Festivals are high risk events. You may spend around £10k before the festival with absolutely not guarantee whatsoever that you’ll make that back. If it rains? You’re in trouble.

Create a contingency plan for both , if you don’t sell everything what can you do with all that excess stock. Freeze it? Roll it over to your other sites? Think about what you’ll do with perishable items. Get a fridge van or a freezer van (if you need it). Good suppliers are CVS and Petit Forestier

Costs include pitch fees, they can range massively from £150 to £9000. Generally you’ll be paying a higher pitch fee than you would at a lunch market. Some festivals charge a percentage, some charge a fixed fee, some charge a mixture of both. There are positives and negatives to both really, so understand what you’ll be charged and plan accordingly.

Other costs include paying for gas & electric, staff members getting there, the sheer amount of food you have to sell is a big cost as well.

Make sure you keep your cash safe. Get a safe installed in your van or put it somewhere nondescript. Theft is a huge problem at festivals; several traders have been hit before and it could wipe out any profit, possibly ruining your business at the same time.

Deliveries – a lot of festivals have preferred partners who will deliver onto site really early in the morning. If you don’t have this option, it’s great to have a car that’s not fixed on site where you can nip out to a cash & carry if you need to. Unfortunately, because the majority of your suppliers may be based where you are based, it may be difficult/impossible to get them to deliver to you. So, check with your supplier and then see what your choices are. Either stock up massively or change suppliers for that festival.