5 reasons to enter #VirginFoodFest: Urban Food Fest

5 reasons to enter #VirginFoodFest: Urban Food Fest

The street food scene is thriving across the UK, but where it really took off – in the trendy enclaves of East London – it’s evolved into something truly amazing. With a huge variety of flavours and options, gone are the days of grabbing uninspiring food on the go. Street food festivals are now an event in themselves – a place to hang out with friends, catch some entertainment, and have a day or evening  out sampling the best new food around.

One festival that’s rapidly established itself as a vital part of the scene is Urban Food Fest. Giving people to dine alfresco and enjoy live music, Urban Food Fest street food night market is every Saturday in Shoreditch, London and central Manchester and features 15 revolving street food trucks, premium bar and cocktail bar, live music and seating. Urban Food Fest also create bespoke corporate events for global brand including Apple, GAP, BMW, Ebay, De Beers and Nike.

Urban Food Fest founder Jessica Tucker is a former City lawyer with a passion for entrepreneurship, street food and creative design. She’s also one of the judges for #VirginFoodFest – and one of the amazing prizes on offer for our food startups is a rent-free stall at Urban Food Fest for 3 months. Every Saturday you’ll get to sell your product to the hungry crowds of Shoreditch, raising the profile of your business and building your fanbase. Here are her reasons to throw your (chef’s) hat into the ring.

Doing things differently

The Urban Food Fest concept is gourmet global street food – which makes us hugely popular, due to the multitude of cuisines we have on offer. Every Saturday we have 15 different street food trucks and stalls. Our range encompasses every nation around the world and can include Korean ramen burgers, Venezuelan beef arepas, Louisiana frogs legs, Peruvian chicken skewers, Italian vegan cheese pasta and Japanese seaweed omlette. We also have a bar serving unique drinks which include craft beers and ciders, international wines, rare prosecco and our own in-house cocktail creations. This means we have a reputation for doing things differently, and for curating the most exciting food stalls around – something which reflects well on your business.

Location, location, location

We’re based in super-cool Shoreditch, right on the high street. This location gets massive footfall, especially on weekends, when the area is absolutely buzzing and revellers are keen to pop in for a bite to eat and a drink to get their weekends started. Having your business placed here for three months, amongst big players on the street food scene, is a great opportunity to get your product in front of lots of new customers.

Work AND play

We’re all about fun! Every 3 weeks we have a themed Urban Food Fest street food night market. At every themed event we give out a free cocktail or craft beer for visitors in the theme's fancy dress. Past themes have included Where's Wally, The Beatles, Flamin' Hot Fiesta, Viva Britannia and Oktoberfest, which we are doing again this year. We get hundreds of people in fancy dress and it creates an awesome atmosphere! We believe that street food shouldn’t be boring or take itself too seriously.

Accessible for everyone

Urban Food Fest is free entry, and open to all ages. We get friends on nights out, birthday parties, wedding parties, tourists and families. Our dishes and drinks are priced between £1 and £8 and are therefore affordable for any budget. This opens us up to a much bigger audience, as people can just pop in for a look around if they want. They’re likely to stay and sample some of the delights on offer, but even those that don’t are still taking a look at your food and learning your business’s name.

Bespoke events

We provide other services too: Urban Food Fest also create bespoke events for corporate and private clients. We have organised parties for global brands including Apple, Manchester United, GAP, Adidas, De Beers and BMW. We can bring our street food trucks and stalls, vintage bars, cocktail bars, vintage furniture, waitressing staff, menus, musicians, decorations and anything else needed to make an event special and unique!