festival traders- its tough out there.

[gfa]

57 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

That's loads better than expected to be honest. £20K over a weekend. 3 on shift at a time, two 7-hour shifts a day over three days so 126 man-hours at minimum wage is £1441.44. You could pay £15 an hour instead and still come in under £2000. And because we're talking staff costs, you're not actually manning the stall yourself.

 

So £18K total. Say you work 10 weekends of the 13 over the summer that's £180K. Obviously there's work that has to be done like maintaining the vehicle, going out and securing spots and all that but it's still a tidy sum for a small business. Even if additional business costs were £80K you could still pay yourself and your partner £50K each for mostly only working over the summer.

 

Honestly I had assumed traders were just seeing £2-5k per festival weekend and deciding that wasn't worthwhile. If they're pulling in £20K I'm not sure what the complaint is to be honest. Unless it's just that the days of being able to do 4 festivals over the summer and not work the rest of the year are over at this point.

The kind of stalls doing 100k will have way more than 6 people doing a 7 hour shift each on each of the 3 days.

 

They will be open 5 days from 10am to past midnight with at least 6-8 staff working. Work also doesn't stop when the unit shuts, there's at least an hour of cleaning up / food prep before they open.

 

You said van maintenance but there's also buying the van and equipment itself - an initial cost which is paid off (earnt back) over time. Fuel, staff travel, utilities etc.

 

I imagine theres a lot of competition for the best spots at best festivals at best prices which means its not possible to always to do worthwhile festivals every weekend.

 

The idea all are struggling is definitely wrong - some make a killing but others do struggle.

 

2-5k should 100% be worth it, 5 day festival thats at worst £400 / day profit and best £1k / day profit. Do that 8 times in a summer and you have made 16-40k in the space of 2 months

Edited August 20 by gfa

[Skip997]

Someone I know used to take £30 000 profit per season and was 10 - 15 years ago 

[Neil]

3 hours ago, stuie said:

you can't legally be turned down for a job with a spent conviction

factually incorrect.an employer can  employ anyone who is suitable for the job, a conviction often deems someone as unsuitable

[Neil]

2 hours ago, gfa said:

2-5k should 100% be worth it, 5 day festival thats at worst £400 / day profit and best £1k / day profit. Do that 8 times in a summer and you have made 16-40k in the space of 2 months

none of the profit is guaranteed -  traders can lose heavily if they're in a poor spot so they don't get the trade, and might have to bin lots of unsold food after.

 

one glasto i was camped next to a steak sandwich stall who gave his food away on the Sunday, cos he'd rather give it away than bin it. He reckoned he'd lost £30k on his first attempt at food trading.

scottie had a huge loss with a glasto food stall in a wet year.

[gfa]

1 minute ago, Neil said:

none of the profit is guaranteed -  traders can lose heavily if they're in a poor spot so they don't get the trade, and might have to bin lots of unsold food after.

 

one glasto i was camped next to a steak sandwich stall who gave his food away on the Sunday, cos he'd rather give it away than bin it. He reckoned he'd lost £30k on his first attempt at food trading.

scottie had a huge loss with a glasto food stall in a wet year.

Of course re the first bit - assumed you get to pick your slot and pay more / less based on this? Guess not

 

--

 

Wet year is a good point - for good years you always need to earn more to account for a wet year where you could lose loads from people leaving early etc

[Neil]

2 hours ago, Skip997 said:

Someone I know used to take £30 000 profit per season and was 10 - 15 years ago 

as its all so easy i look forward to meeting you folks getting rich in a field next summer, and perhaps you shouldn't believe boasts about earnings?

[Neil]

12 minutes ago, gfa said:

- assumed you get to pick your slot and pay more / less based on this? Guess not

the markets manager decides where a stall goes.i went thru the process for glasto once with  the markets manager, he suggested a place i thought was rubbish. festival organisers will also  tell you that getting traders to pay the agreed fee can be difficult.

[Neil]

13 minutes ago, Neil said:

the markets manager decides where a stall goes.i went thru the process for glasto once with  the markets manager, he suggested a place i thought was rubbish. festival organisers will also  tell you that getting traders to pay the agreed fee can be difficult.

with glasto- they encourage traders to resupply  their food stocks  from local businesses.i found that off putting as i wouldn't have had the control over the stall i'd imagined.

[stuie]

35 minutes ago, Neil said:

with glasto- they encourage traders to resupply  their food stocks  from local businesses.i found that off putting as i wouldn't have had the control over the stall i'd imagined.

That’s gone a bit further now apparently - during the festival traders can only resupply using the wholesale market at the festival! 

[Crazyfool01]

4 minutes ago, stuie said:

That’s gone a bit further now apparently - during the festival traders can only resupply using the wholesale market at the festival! 

I’d imagine that might also be to do with vehicle movement restrictions though which they can control centrally ? 

[Neil]

8 minutes ago, stuie said:

That’s gone a bit further now apparently - during the festival traders can only resupply using the wholesale market at the festival! 

that's how it was when i enquired, and they'd make sure the onsite wholesale market (supplied by local businesses) would have the re-supplies i wanted - i was looking at doing sponge pudding and custard (there was nothing like that at the time).

 

away from glasto i've had a few festie organisers say that traders are troublesome, and always wanted a cheaper pitch fee, claiming they'd not done as well as hoped.

[Neil]

11 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

I’d imagine that might also be to do with vehicle movement restrictions though which they can control centrally ? 

yeah it is about vehicle movements, and giving locals a way into the  festival income streams

Edited August 20 by Neil

[stuie]

15 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

I’d imagine that might also be to do with vehicle movement restrictions though which they can control centrally ? 

I think that’s what they say but if that was the case then surely traders could resupply themselves by foot through a PG? But they aren’t officially allowed to do that even though some do! 

[Ayrshire Chris]

7 minutes ago, Neil said:

doing sponge pudding and custard

That sounds good😊

[Crazyfool01]

2 minutes ago, stuie said:

I think that’s what they say but if that was the case then surely traders could resupply themselves by foot through a PG? But they aren’t officially allowed to do that even though some do! 

I’d not fancy that as a trader … hard enough getting a few cans onsite 😂

[Neil]

1 minute ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

That sounds good😊

it seemed like a great idea (thought up around a festival campfire), hot sweet food for late night.that wouldn't be difficult to prepare and serve (it was the sponge i was told i'd have to buy from local traders)

[stuie]

23 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

I’d not fancy that as a trader … hard enough getting a few cans onsite 😂

I guess depends what it is! I think they have to collect their order from interstage area anyway. 

[stuie]

22 minutes ago, Neil said:

it seemed like a great idea (thought up around a festival campfire), hot sweet food for late night.that wouldn't be difficult to prepare and serve (it was the sponge i was told i'd have to buy from local traders)

 

All of it? Or just if you run out of your own sponge during the show? 
 

[Neil]

2 minutes ago, stuie said:

 

All of it? Or just if you run out of your own sponge during the show? 
 

i think it was all of it, 

[Neil]

5 minutes ago, stuie said:

I guess depends what it is! I think they have to collect their order from interstage area anyway. 

probably from the wholesale market, which is behind the market stalls just off the main drag.

[Crazyfool01]

Sponge might have been good once the wellies sold out 😃

[Paul ™]

Wholesale markets at festivals including Glasto only supply soft drinks/water/fries and a few other bits, not the whole menu that traders sell.

[incident]

4 minutes ago, Paul ™ said:

Wholesale markets at festivals including Glasto only supply soft drinks/water/fries and a few other bits, not the whole menu that traders sell.

 

I've previously seen a list of what's offered at the Glastonbury wholesale market, and it's a fair bit more extensive than that, with multiple companies offering a variety of products including bakers and full service butchers.

 

It won't be everything, and obviously some stalls will specialise too much to be covered (with some of those given exemptions to allow deliveries), but I'd wager that the wholesale market can cover the vast bulk of what's sold on site.

[DeanoL]

16 hours ago, Neil said:

none of the profit is guaranteed -  traders can lose heavily if they're in a poor spot so they don't get the trade, and might have to bin lots of unsold food after.

 

one glasto i was camped next to a steak sandwich stall who gave his food away on the Sunday, cos he'd rather give it away than bin it. He reckoned he'd lost £30k on his first attempt at food trading.

scottie had a huge loss with a glasto food stall in a wet year.

That's the point in favour of the "30% of the revenue, low pitch fees" model though. You then share some of that risk with the festival. Unsold food still an issue but you're not starting massively in a hole and having to earn out a pitch fee first.

[Pinhead]

Banana Donuts....