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Festival Atlas 2017: Food Festivals
1. The Dutch Festival Landscape 2017: Food Festivals
MXStudio / Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
Harry van Vliet
May 2018
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Contents
Introduction 3
Food Festivals 2017 4
Food Festival Landscape 2017 5
Part 1: Size and characteristics 6
Part 2: Programming 22
Part 3: Social media 31
Part 4: Comparison 2016 and 2017 47
Methodology 59
List of Food Festivals 2017 61
The Festival Atlas Team 62
More on the Festival Atlas 63
Contact 64
Colophon 65
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- INTRODUCTION
Introduction
Festivals are irreplaceable in how we spend our free time and cultural life. Whether it is the many
Liberation festivals in the Netherlands on the 5th of May, a weekend full of films from faraway countries in
a film theatre, or food trucks on the local market square, it’s difficult not to stumble across a festival –
especially during the summer months.
Festivals also attract a lot of press attention via festival agendas, reviews and interviews, as well as articles
that either complain about the nuisances’ festivals cause or praise the artistic highlights of artists
performing. This media attention often includes statements about festival trends and developments.
However, these statements are usually based on anecdotal evidence, using the examples of only a couple
of festivals as ‘proof’ for a general trend. This alone is enough of a reason to look at how the sector is truly
put together, including the dynamics behind the sector’s renewal and endurance.
In addition, the cultural, social and economic meaning of festivals should also inspire interest in what’s
really happening in the festival world. Certainly, one cannot deny that the festival landscape is a busy and
diverse landscape. But in what ways is it diverse? And how busy is ‘busy’? How many festivals are actually
out there? To answer these questions, one needs to collect data and count. Only then, based on these
results, can informed judgements be formulated about the true size and nature of the festival landscape.
On 1 July 2016, ‘Edition Zero’ of the Festival Atlas was presented with an overview and analyses of Dutch
music festivals in 2015. After publication, we immediately set to work on the Festival Atlas 2016. With that
edition we wanted to deal with one important ‘deficit’: Festival Atlas 2015 had only covered music festivals.
While we could have expanded on this single focus, by including jazz festivals for example, we decided to
expand the 2016 edition with other types of festivals, namely film festivals and food festivals. In this way,
we would also bring more credence to our title ‘Festival Atlas’. In June 2017, the second edition of the
Festival Atlas was published. Soon followed by a ‘supplement’ on art festivals. In 2018 several separate
publications will see the light of day for the different festival sectors. Also the accompanying website to
the Festival Atlas (www.festivalatlas.nl) will be restyled to present the collected data online. In 2019 a new
and complete third edition of Festival Atlas will be published.
In this publication the focus is on food festivals in 2017. Data was gathered on a total of 181 food festivals.
Since festivals can have more than one edition in the same year, the total number of festival editions is
higher: 276 food festival editions. With this, food festivals are one of the medium sectors in het festival
landscape, the art festivals and film festivals are fewer in number. But in comparison, there are more than
1100 music festival editions in the Netherlands every year.
A wide range of data is presented to give insights in how this food festival landscape looks like. The data is
presented in four sections: a section with general statistics on the size and characteristics of the food
festival landscape; a section with data on the programming at food festivals; a section on the social media
presence and usage by food festivals; and finally, a comparison is made between the data of the 2016 food
festival season and the 2017 food festival season, to spot trends and developments.
Harry van Vliet
FESTIVAL ATLAS
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FOOD FESTIVALS - SIZE AND CHARACTERISTICS
The Food Festival Season 2017
A total of 181 food festivals took place in the Netherlands over 2017. These 181 food festivals provided 276
food festival editions, since 29 food festivals had multiple editions over the year. This relatively small
group of reappearing food festivals provided 123 food festival editions, almost half of the total. Examples
include: Food Truck Festival Trek, Lepeltje Lepeltje, Toost Foodtruck Festival and Foodstock. However,
most food festivals return annually (80%), while a few are one-offs (3%). In other words, 16% of the food
festivals had more editions over the same year. The vast majority (91%) of the 181 food festivals has existed
less than six years; in fact, 75% has not even existed for more than three years. Only 2% of the food
festivals in 2017 exists longer than 10 years, such as Preuvenemint in Maastricht and Proef Eet in
Enschede.
The food festival season is very much concentrated in the months of May through September, when 86%
of the food festival editions takes place. The busiest days also occur within those months. Food festivals
are also concentrated in a few provinces, with Zuid-Holland and Noord-Holland hosting a large portion of
the food festival editions: 127 of the 276 (46%). The busiest cities are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht,
which combined had 21% of all food festival editions in 2017.
Paid entry is not usual for food festivals, with only 12% of food festival editions asking an entry fee.
However, most required payment for the eating and drinking that took place on the festival location itself.
Food festivals with an entrance fee pretty can mainly be found in two provinces: Noord-Holland and
Utrecht. Also, there are only a limited number of indoor food festivals – only 10% of the festival editions
were held indoors. These indoor editions mostly took place during the fall and winter months. In the
summer months, there are very few indoor food festival editions. Most indoor festivals takes place in the
provinces Noord-Holland, Noord-Brabant and Utrecht. A large majority of the held food festival editions
are multi-day (77%). The spread of one-day editions over the provinces lacks a clear pattern: Overijssel,
Zeeland and Noord-Holland may relatively have the most one-day food festival editions, yet differ greatly
in the absolute number of food festival editions. Following the three main characteristics of food festival
editions, we can say that the most common form is the free outdoor multi-day festival taking place in the
summer months.
The ‘diffusion’ index of the provinces shows some differences: provinces like Flevoland and Groningen
have an index of 0, meaning all festival editions took place in the same city; whereas in a province like
Zeeland almost all festival editions took place in different cities, leading to a high index number of 0,91.
There is no clear pattern, although the busiest provinces (Zuid-Holland, Noord-Holland, Noord-Brabant)
have the lowest diffusion index, that is if we exclude the ‘0’ provinces.
In 2017, the Netherlands saw the appearance of 49 new food festivals organizing 57 food festival editions
– accounting for 27% of the year’s total number of food festival editions. New food festivals included for
instance Foodtruck Festival Pittig en Zoet, Smeerum and Blue Food Festival. These new food festival
editions took mainly place during the already busy months of May through September, although the
pattern is somewhat skewed towards September and also October. Most editions also took place in the two
provinces with the most food festivals (Zuid- and Noord-Holland). These new editions were generally free
(84%), outdoor (82%) and multi-day (61%), and hence follow the pattern of existing food festival editions –
though there were somewhat more one-day festivals among these new festival editions.
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Number of food festival editions in 2017 by month
jan feb march april may june july aug sept oct nov dec
Numberoffestivaleditions
43
14
55
4546
56
36
76
31
- WHEN?
(n = 276)
9 9 8
28 25 5
July Aug May
FOOD FESTIVALS
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Number of food festival editions in 2017 by province
ZH NH NB Gel Utr Lim Ov Zee Dre Gro Fri Fle
1567
11
1617
22
27
37
56
71
- WHERE?
(n = 276)
28
17
12
Amsterdam
Rotterdam
Utrecht
Numberoffestivaleditions
FOOD FESTIVALS
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Ratio of food festival editions to province population
407.818
129.375
97.264
70.256
34.688
71.73065.73858.387
75.484
67.906
50.16951.412
- HOW MANY BY PROVINCE POPULATION
(n = 276)
Numberofpeopleperfestivaledition
FOOD FESTIVALS
ZH NH NB Gel Utr Lim Ov Zee Dre Gro Fri Fle
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Year of first edition of food festivals in 2017
- YEAR OF ORIGIN
20
40
60
1972 1980 1982 1986 1988 1993 1998 2000 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 (n = 181)
FOOD FESTIVALS
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Percentage of food festivals in 2017 by frequency type and by edition
(n = 181)
1%
16%
80%
3%
One-off
Annually
Several times a year
2-yearly
2%7%
16%
48%
27%
New
2-3
4-5
6-10
>10
(n = 181)
(49)
- FREQUENCY AND EDITIONFOOD FESTIVALS
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Number of paid and free food festival editions in 2017 by month
jan feb march april may june july aug sept oct nov dec
22
9
49
38
42
50
35
641
2144
6
4511221
- PAID AND FREE
(n = 271)
12% 88%
Numberoffestivaleditions
FOOD FESTIVALS
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Number of 1-day and multi-day food festival editions in 2017 by month
jan feb march april may june july aug sept oct nov dec
3
7
41
3532
49
31
56
31 13
7
14
10
14
7
52
(n = 276)
- 1-DAY AND MULTI-DAY
23% 77%
Numberoffestivaleditions
FOOD FESTIVALS
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Number of indoor and outdoor food festival editions in 2017 by month
jan feb march april may june july aug sept oct nov dec
21
4
47
4446
54
36
2
2
22
7
4112421
(n = 264)
- INDOOR AND OUTDOOR
10% 90%
Numberoffestivaleditions
FOOD FESTIVALS
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Number of new food festival editions in 2017 by month
jan feb march april may june july aug sept oct nov dec
1
10
11
8
9
55
4
3
1
- NEW FOOD FESTIVALS
(n = 57)
Numberoffestivaleditions
FOOD FESTIVALS
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Number of new food festival editions in 2017 by province and some characteristics
Zuid-Holland
Noord-Holland
Noord-Brabant
Gelderland
Utrecht
Limburg
Overijssel
Zeeland
Drenthe
Groningen
Friesland
Flevoland
0 5 10 15
1
2
2
2
6
6
10
14
14
(n = 57)
- NEW FOOD FESTIVAL EDITIONS CHARACTERISTICS
61%16% 84% 39%
18% 82%
FOOD FESTIVALS
(n = 57)(n = 56)
(n = 50)
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Diffusion index of food festival editions in 2017 by province
0,25
0,5
0,75
1
0,8
0,86
0,91
0,630,65
0,45
0,56
0,35
0,410,39
- DIFFUSION INDEX
(n = 276)
Duffisionindex
FOOD FESTIVALS
ZH NH NB Gel Utr Lim Ov Zee Dre Gro Fri Fle
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- PROGRAMMING
Food programming
Almost all food trucks at food festivals in the Netherlands in 2017 were from the Netherlands, only 2%
came from other countries, with Belgium taking the larger part in this. Of these food trucks 60% has a self-
employed owner or caterer; most stories on Facebook of these food truck owners are about finding a
suitable van to restyle it into a food truck and make a dream come true. A second category, with 18%,
comprises of food trucks, or more precise food stands, owned by restaurants, bistro’s or cafe’s. These can
mostly be found at food festivals promoting a city, with local businesses taking main stage. Product
suppliers of for instance snacks, vegan food and delivery services can be found at food festival that are
more oriented towards business to business activities. At 50% of the food festivals there were no more
than 20 food trucks, 33% of the food festivals had 21 to 30 food trucks and only a very small percentage
(2%) had more than 50 food trucks.
Of the 1802 food trucks registered at food festivals only 12% made explicit that their food was biological,
3% that it was vegetarian and 1% that it was Halal. The majority (84%) makes no mention of this although
in some cases it is made clear that there is also for instance a vegetarian sandwich available or that some
ingredients are biological. If we do a further analysis on the food trucks serving biological food, it shows
two remarkable results: first, they are not evenly distributed across the provinces with Limburg having the
highest percentage of food trucks serving biological food and Overijssel the lowest percentage; second,
although the distribution over the year is more or less stable there are two exceptions, namely February
and October with almost a twice as high percentage of food trucks serving biological food compared to
other months. It is unclear what the underlying cause is, a larger sample of food trucks for the 2018 season
must reveal if these are recurring phenomena.
There is not a specific ‘cuisine’ dominating the food festival landscape. Of course, there are some popular
countries or world regions with their specific dishes like Italy (pizza), Indonesia (satay), Latin-America
(tortilla’s) and The Netherlands (pancakes), but overall most food trucks serve a menu not linked to any
specific region. If we look more closely at these menus it shows a great diversity. 30% of the menu’s of the
food served at food festivals shows various dishes with no specific signature dish that is being promoted,
which means that 70% of the food trucks do promote a specific dish as their speciality. Most popular is the
hamburger, or more general meat sandwiches, 12% of all the food trucks at food festivals offer this menu.
Other popular dishes are: pancakes/waffles/churros (6%), BBQ/spareribs (5%), coffee/tea (5%), ice-cream
(4%) and cake/scones/cookies (4%). If we take these 6 popular dishes and analyse them by province it
becomes clear that Gelderland is the province with the highest percentage of hamburger/meat sandwiches
on the menu (17,9%), and Utrecht the lowest percentage (7,2%). There also appears to be a trend
throughout the season in the sense that the portion of hamburger/meat sandwiches served is gradually
becoming less over the months April to September. The reason for this remains unclear.
Finally, an analysis was made on the diversity of food served at food festivals per province. This was done
by calculating the average number of different ‘cuisine’s’ at food festivals in each province, as well as
calculating the average number of different dishes served at food festivals in each province. In both cases
the province of Groningen showed the largest diversity of food served at their food festivals.
Characterizing food festivals more as a family outing as compared to other kind of festivals can be
substantiated by the fringe programming. Almost half of the food festivals (45%) had specific children
activities to entertain children, this is only topped by music that is present at two-third (68%) of all food
festivals. Masterclasses, a market and (theatrical) performances can also be found regularly in the food
festival landscape, although there is some variation in this depending on the province and time of year.
FOOD FESTIVALS
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Percentage of land of origin
of food trucks
(n = 809)
1%
1%
98%
The Netherlands
Belgium
Other
10%
12%
18% 60%
Self-employed/Caterar
Restaurant/Bistro/Cafe
Product supplier
Self-employed with shop
(n = 774)
- FOODTRUCKSFOOD FESTIVALS
Percentage of kind of company
of food trucks
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Percentage of number of food trucks
on food festival editions
(n = 103)
2%
15%
33%
42%
8%
3-10
11-20
21-30
31-50
>50
1%
3%
12%
84%
Non-specified
Biological
Vegetarian
Halal
(n = 1802)
- FOODTRUCKSFOOD FESTIVALS
Percentage of kind of food served by
food trucks at food festival editions
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Percentage of foodtrucks serving biological food by province
6,3%6,3%
12,9%
6,3%
3,4%2,9%
15,7%
14,4%13,4%
11,7%12,2%12,1%
(n = 1802)
Percentageoffoodtrucksservingbiologicalfood
FOOD FESTIVALS
ZH NH NB Gel Utr Lim Ov Zee Dre Gro Fri Fle
- WHAT’S ON THE MENU?
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Percentage of foodtrucks serving biological food by month
22%
11,3%10,7%
11,9%
10,7%
12,4%
10%10,5%
22,7%
(n = 1802)
Percentageoffoodtrucksservingbiologicalfood
FOOD FESTIVALS
jan feb march april may june july aug sept oct nov dec
- WHAT’S ON THE MENU?
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Percentage of food served by foodtrucks at food festival editions
Various dishes
Hamburgers/Meat sandwiches
(mini-) Pancakes/Waffles/Churros
BBQ/Spareribs
Coffee/Tea
Ice-cream
Cake/Scones/Cookies
French Fries
Satay
Tex Mex/Wraps/Tortilla's
Wine
Fish/Oysters/Gamba's
Pizza
0 10 20 30 40 50
2%
3%
3%
3%
3%
3%
4%
4%
5%
5%
6%
12%
30%
(n = 1772)
FOOD FESTIVALS - WHAT’S ON THE MENU?
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Top 6 dishes of what is on the menu of food festival editions by province
6,3%6,3%
3,2%
4,2%
1,4%
5%
3,6%
6%
4,1%
1,6%
2%
6,3%6,3%1,6%
3,4%
2,9%
3,8%
3,1%
4%
4,7%
4,3%
3,4% 6,3%6,3%
4,8%
3,4%
2,9%
4,4%
5,7%
4%
5%
3,1%
5,1%
6,3%6,3%
8,1%
5%
2,9%
6,3%
4,6%
5,5%
4,1%
4,7%
4,5%
6,3%6,3%
8,1%
3,4%2,9%
5,7%
5,2%
5,5%
5,6%
6,3%
5,6%
12,5%12,5%12,9%
9,2%8,7%
13,2%
7,2%
17,9%
13,5%
10,2%
13,2%
Hamburgers/Meat sandwiches Pancakes/Waffles/Churros BBQ/Spareribs Coffee/Tea
Ice-cream Cake/Scones/Cookies
(n = 1772) *not enough data
Percentageofmenudishes
FOOD FESTIVALS
ZH NH NB Gel Utr Lim Ov Zee Dre* Gro Fri Fle
- WHAT’S ON THE MENU?
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Top 6 dishes of what is on the menu of food festival editions by month
7,8%
2,3%
4%
4,3%
4,5%
2,4%
2%
4,5%
3,9%
3,7%4,6%4%
3,4%
4,3%
4,1%
3,9%
3%4,6%
4,3%
5,7%
4,8%
6,1%
5,3%
4,5%
2%
5,3%
4,3%
4,6%
6%
4,3%
4,1%
5,3%
4,5%
3,9%
6,6%5,5%
6,2%
5,1%3,8%
8,2%
5,3%
4,5%
2%
10,3%10,8%11,7%
14,5%14,8%
22,4%
18,2%
Hamburgers/Meat sandwiches Pancakes/Waffles/Churros BBQ/Spareribs Coffee/Tea
Ice-cream Cake/Scones/Cookies
(n = 1772) *not enough data
Percentageofmenudishes
FOOD FESTIVALS
jan* feb march april may june july aug sept oct nov* dec*
- WHAT’S ON THE MENU?
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Average number of different food kitchens and food menu’s by province
Zuid-Holland
Noord-Holland
Noord-Brabant
Gelderland
Utrecht
Limburg
Overijssel
Zeeland
Drenthe*
Groningen
Friesland*
Flevoland*
0 5 10 15 20
13
8
9
9
7
8
9
6
7
- VARIATION INDEXFOOD FESTIVALS
Zuid-Holland
Noord-Holland
Noord-Brabant
Gelderland
Utrecht
Limburg
Overijssel
Zeeland
Drenthe*
Groningen
Friesland*
Flevoland*
0 5 10 15 20
8
5
5
5
3
5
5
4
4
(n = 1802) *not enough data (n = 1772) *not enough data
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Percentage of food festival editions with specific fringe program
- FRINGE PROGRAM
Percentageoffestivaleditions
Music/DJs
Childrensactivities
Masterclasses/Workshops
Market
Performances
Lectures
Art
Quiz
Film
Fair
Forum/Panel
Tours
1,1%1,1%1,8%2,2%2,5%3,3%5,1%
14,5%
17,8%19,2%
45,3%
68,5%
(n = 276)
FOOD FESTIVALS
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- SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media presence and usage
Food festivals mainly use three social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Facebook is used
by 70% of the food festivals, which is comparable to the number of food festivals with their own website
(69%). Of the 56 food festivals that don’t have their own website, 26 do have a Facebook page – therefore
Facebook is clearly being used as an alternative to having one’s own website. YouTube’s low score is
striking, since this platform does end up in the top three of the most used social media platform of for
instance music festivals. However, the reasons behind this remain unclear. Vimeo (2%) and Pinterest (1%)
only appear sporadically. The use of other social media platforms was observed in single cases or not at all.
The extent of social media use by food festivals is limited, certainly when compared with film and music
festivals. Food festivals don’t have million views on YouTube – which does occur with the other festivals.
In addition, the top 5 food festivals also score much lower with Facebook likes and Twitter followers
compared to the top 5 of the other festival types. The average number of Facebook likes is 3,886, the
average number of Twitter followers is only 575, and the average number of Instagram followers is a mere
1,025. And these are the social media indicators that score the most. The scores are even lower with the
average number of Facebook check-ins, Twitter tweets and Instagram posts.
In addition, food festivals show big differences between each other in visitor response. With Facebook,
only 11 food festivals achieve over 10,000 likes, with almost two-thirds of the festivals scoring between
1,000 and 10,000 likes; and almost 30% of the food festivals with a Facebook page has less than 1,000
likes. With Twitter followers, the numbers are even lower: only 24% of the food festivals scores between
1,000 and 10,000 followers, with the rest having less than 1,000 followers. Instagram followers show the
same pattern, with one exception being Taste of Amsterdam that has over 10,000 Instagram followers.
No large differences exist between free and paid food festivals when it comes to social media use. Only
with the Instagram followers of paid food festivals are the numbers clearly higher. The number of
Facebook likes and the number of followers is pretty much the same whether it’s a free or a paid food
festival. A greater difference is shown when one-day festivals are compared with multi-day festivals.
Multi-day food festivals score significantly higher with Facebook likes and Instagram followers – though
the number of Twitter followers is not substantially different. A possible explanation is that with multi-day
festivals, more people are present over time and there are more ‘touchpoints’ with the festival – so there’s
an increased chance that people will express themselves on social media. However, this cannot be the only
explanation since with the other festival types we see other patterns in the comparison of one-day and
multi-day festivals. Comparing social media use between indoor and outdoor festival does not reveal any
substantial differences.
When ‘young’ festivals (less than 4 years) are compared with ‘old’ festivals that already exist over 10 years,
the old food festivals score better on Facebook likes and Twitter followers, with no difference on Instagram
followers. Undoubtedly, this is related to the fact that young food festivals use Instagram much more often
as a social media platform than old food festivals. In other words: here’s an opportunity for older food
festivals to increase their range.
FOOD FESTIVALS
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Percentage of food festivals in 2017 that used a website and social media platforms
- SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE
Percentageoffoodfestivals
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube
Vimeo
Linkedin
Google+
Snapchat
Spotify
Tumbler
Pinterest
1%2%1%
34%35%
70%69%
(n = 181)
FOOD FESTIVALS
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Social media metrics of food festivals 2017
- SOCIAL MEDIA METRICS
Average
3.886
Max
43.291
0 50.000
Facebook Likes
Average
575
Max
2.627
0 50.000
Twitter followers
Average
1.025
Max
18.420
0 50.000
Instagram followers
FOOD FESTIVALS
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Percentage food festivals
by number of Facebook likes
(n = 125)
29%
62%
9%
> 1 million
> 100 thousand
> 10 thousand
> 1 thousand
> 0
- SOCIAL MEDIA USE
Top 5 food festivals with
the most Facebook likes
Lepeltje Lepeltje
Rrrollend Foodtruck Festivals
Rollende keukens
Veggie World
Eten op Rolletjes
43.291
30.282
24.479
23.519
22.047
FOOD FESTIVALS
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Percentage food festivals
by number of Twitter followers
(n = 64)
76%
24%
> 1 million
> 100 thousand
> 10 thousand
> 1 thousand
> 0
- SOCIAL MEDIA USE
Top 5 food festivals with
the most Twitter followers
Lekker Venlo
Leiden Culinair
Veggie World
MM Culinair
Origin Chocolate Event
2.627
2.516
2.226
2.119
2.100
FOOD FESTIVALS
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Percentage food festivals
by number of Instagram followers
(n = 59)
78%
20%
2%
> 1 million
> 100 thousand
> 10 thousand
> 1 thousand
> 0
- SOCIAL MEDIA USE
Top 5 food festivals with
the most Instagram followers
Taste of Amsterdam
Veggie World
Lepeltje Lepeltje
Butcher's Heaven
Rollende keukens
18.420
6.491
4.646
2.627
2.074
FOOD FESTIVALS
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Average social media use of paid and free food festivals in 2017
AverageNumberoffollowers(x1000)
Paid Free Total
0,50,50,8
- SOCIAL MEDIA USE
AverageNumberoflikes(x1000)
Paid Free Total
3,9
3,6
5,1
AverageNumberoffollowers(x1000)
Paid Free Total
1,10,6
3,2
(n = 121) (n = 62) (n = 57)
FOOD FESTIVALS
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Average social media use of 1-day and multi-day food festivals in 2017
AverageNumberoffollowers(x1000)
1 day >1 day Total
0,60,60,5
- SOCIAL MEDIA USE
AverageNumberoflikes(x1000)
1 day >1 day Total
3,9
7,3
1,3
AverageNumberoffollowers(x1000)
1day >1day Totaal
1
1,3
0,2
(n = 125) (n = 64) (n = 59)
FOOD FESTIVALS
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Average social media use of indoor and outdoor food festivals in 2017
AverageNumberoffollowers(x1000)
Indoor Outdoor Total
0,60,5
1,3
- SOCIAL MEDIA USE
AverageNumberoflikes(x1000)
Indoor Outdoor Total
44,14
AverageNumberoffollowers(x1000)
Indoor Outdoor Total
111,2
(n = 115) (n = 62) (n = 56)
FOOD FESTIVALS
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Average social media use of young (< 4 years) and old (>10 years)
food festivals in 2017
AverageNumberoffollowers(x1000)
Young Old Total
0,710,3
- SOCIAL MEDIA USE
AverageNumberoflikes(x1000)
Young Old Total
4,6
7
2,2
AverageNumberoffollower(x1000)
Young Old Total
0,50,60,5
(n = 92) (n = 35) (n = 37)
FOOD FESTIVALS
48. MXStudio
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- COMPARISONS 2016 AND 2017
A comparison of the 2016 and 2017 food festival season
In 2016, 175 food festivals took place with 282 editions. In 2017, there were 181 food festivals with a total of
276 editions. This is a 3% rise in the number of festivals, but a 2% drop in the number of festival editions.
Overall there is a marginal shift in the number of food festivals (editions) when comparing 2017 to 2016.
Also the fluctuations in the seasonal pattern are minimal with somewhat more festival editions in June and
August and somewhat less in May and July.
The data on the division of food festival editions in 2017 over the provinces also shows only minor
variations compared to the 2016 festival season: Zuid-Holland had slightly more food festival editions, as
had for instance Limburg, whereas Overijssel and Friesland had slightly less food festival editions in 2017
compared to 2016. The top five of provinces with most festival editions remains the same, with Zuid-
Holland and Noord-Holland as the main stages for food festivals. The top 3 busiest cities remained the
same in 2017, with Amsterdam still the absolute leader, followed by Rotterdam and Utrecht.
Regarding the diffusion of festival editions in provinces, there are some slight changes: Noord-Holland,
Utrecht, Overijssel, Zeeland and Friesland have a noticeable increase in their diffusion index, meaning
festival editions were more spread out through the provinces than in 2016. There are no provinces that
performed significantly worse on the diffusion index in 2017 compared to 2016.
The food festival season of 2017 resembles 2016 in several ways. The clear majority of food festivals
remain returning festivals that are held annually. Due to a smaller number of new food festivals in 2017
(49) compared to 2016 (85), the relative share of ‘older’ festivals, a history of 6 years or more, is somewhat
higher in 2017 (25%) compared to 2016 (20%). The largest difference is in the category ‘2-3 years’ with
31% in 2016 and 48% in 2017. The ratio between paid/free is pretty much the same: 88% - 12% in 2017,
83% - 17% in 2016. The same goes for the ratio between indoor and outdoor festivals which is almost the
same for both years: 77% - 23% in 2017, 75% - 25% in 2016. And the ratio for one-day versus multi-day
festivals is also almost the same: 10% - 90% in comparison with 2016: 12% - 88%. The percentage of food
festivals using a dedicated website for their festival has dropped somewhat with 5 percent. Use of social
media platforms remains stable, only Instagram is about to overtake YouTube trailing only by 1%.
The observation that the food festival seasons of 2017 and 2016 are in many ways comparable may cloud
the view that there still are some dynamics at work in the total composition of the sector. For one thing,
there is a substantial drop of new food festivals in 2017: the number of new food festivals has dropped
from 85 in 2016 to 49 in 2017; for the number of food festival editions this is even more dramatic with
almost a drop of 50% of new editions: 103 in 2016 compared to 57 in 2017. Especially in the months May
through September there are less new food festivals compared to 2016. An exception is October with more
new food festivals than in 2016. It is not clear what the underlying cause is for this. The drop in new food
festivals has affected all provinces, there is no province that performs better in number of new food
festivals in 2017 compared to 2016. The provinces Noord-Holland, Overijssel and Zeeland show the largest
gap between number of new food festivals when comparing 2017 to 2016.
FOOD FESTIVALS
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- FOOD FESTIVAL EDITIONS 2017 - 2016
Number of food festival editions in 2017 and 2016 by month
jan feb march april may june july aug sept oct nov dec
Numberoffestivaleditions
25
50
75
2017 2016
(n = 276) (n = 282)
FOOD FESTIVALS
50. MXStudio
50
Number of food festival editions in 2017 and 2016 by province
Numberoffestivaleditions
25
50
75
ZH NH NB Gel Utr Lim Ove Zee Dre Gro Fri Fle
2017 2016
(n = 276) (n = 282)
FOOD FESTIVALS - FOOD FESTIVAL EDITIONS 2017 - 2016
51. MXStudio
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Percentage of food festivals by frequency and edition
(n = 181)
- FOOD FESTIVAL 2017 - 2016
1%
16%
80%
3%
One-off
Annually
Several times a year
2-yearly
2017 outer circle
2016 inner circle
6%
74%
18%
2%
(n = 175)
2%
7%
16%
48%
27%
New
2-3
4-5
6-10
>10
2%
49%
8%
10%
31%
(n = 181)2017 outer circle
2016 inner circle (n = 175)
FOOD FESTIVALS
52. MXStudio
52
Paid and free
(n = 271)
88%
12%
2017 outer circle
2016 inner circle
17%
83%
(n = 278)
90%
10%
12%
88%
(n = 276)2017 outer circle
2016 inner circle (n = 282)
77%
23%
25%
75%
(n = 264)2017 outer circle
2016 inner circle (n = 270)
1-day and multiday Indoor and outdoor
FOOD FESTIVALS - FOOD FESTIVAL EDITIONS 2017 - 2016
53. MXStudio
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Number of new food festival editions in 2017 and 2016 by month
jan feb march april may june july aug sept oct nov dec
Numberoffestivaleditions
5
10
15
20
25
2017 2016
(n = 57) (n = 103)
FOOD FESTIVALS - FOOD FESTIVAL EDITIONS 2017 - 2016
54. MXStudio
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Number of new food festival editions in 2017 and 2016 by province
Numberoffestivaleditions
5
10
15
20
25
2017 2016
(n = 57) (n = 103)
FOOD FESTIVALS
ZH NH NB Gel Utr Lim Ov Zee Dre Gro Fri Fle
- FOOD FESTIVAL EDITIONS 2017 - 2016
55. MXStudio
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Year of first edition of food festivals in 2017 and 2016
- YEAR OF FIRST FESTIVALS 2017 - 2016
15
30
45
60
75
90
1972 1980 1982 1986 1988 1993 1997 1999 2001 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017
2017 2016
(n = 181) (n = 175)
FOOD FESTIVALS
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Diffusion index of food festival editions in 2017 and 2016 by province
- DIFFUSION INDEX 2017 - 2016
0,25
0,5
0,75
1
ZH NH NB Gel Utr Lim Ov Zee Dre Gro Fri Fle
0,6
0,58
0
0,80,8
0,39
0,67
0,29
0,58
0,38
0,33
0,41
0
0,8
0
0,86
0,91
0,63
0,65
0,45
0,56
0,35
0,41
0,39
2017 2016
Duffisionindex
(n = 276) (n = 282)
FOOD FESTIVALS
57. MXStudio
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- SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
Percentage of food festivals in 2017 and 2016 that used social media platform
25
50
75
100
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube
Vimeo
LinkedIn
Google+
Snapchat
Spotify
Tumblr
Pinterest
3%0%0%0%0%0%2%1%
31%
41%
78%
74%
1%0%0%0%0%0%2%1%
34%35%
70%69%
2017 2016
PercentageofFestivals
(n = 181) (n = 153)
FOOD FESTIVALS
58.
59. MXStudio
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- METHODOLOGY
Collecting and analysing festival data
For the data collection, we followed a two-step systematic approach. The first phase involved creating a
so-called ‘dirty’ list of as many festivals as possible. Various sources were used in this process: websites,
blogs, festival calendars, (online) festival guides, databases, Wikipedia, newspaper features with
overviews of the festival seasons and interviews with (fanatical) festival goers. The resulting list was then
cleaned up by removing any repetitions, and by cross-checking sources to confirm whether a particular
festival actually exists (or existed). An additional search was made for festival posters, adding more
festivals. This resulted in a first list of festivals.
The second phase involved evaluating whether a festival should be included in the analyses for the
Festival Atlas. This evaluation was based on the festival characteristics as described by Van Vliet (2012): a
festival is organised, accessible to the public (paid or not) and involves multiple (at least 3) performances
that take place during a specific period (mostly one-day or weekend-long). ‘Performances’ must be
interpreted differently for the specific festivals under consideration, in the case of food festivals this refers
to food trucks or food stands. This general description was made more specific by applying the following
criteria:
• It’s about Dutch festivals – that is to say, festivals that take place in The Netherlands (excluding
overseas territories). These could be internationally oriented festivals that take place in The
Netherlands, but not festivals organised by a Dutch organisation in a foreign country – which could be
the case in some border regions and with large dance parties organised in foreign countries by Dutch
organisations.
• It’s about annual festivals – that is to say, festivals that take place every year. But with the following
exceptions:
• Festivals that only took place in 2017 (one-offs) are also included.
• Festivals that have editions every two years, and did not have an edition in 2017, are not included
in this edition of the Festival Atlas. However, they are registered in the database and will
‘reappear’ in for instance the 2018 edition.
• Festivals that take place irregularly but did have a 2017 edition will be included.
• Some festivals are annual but have more than one edition a year, such as winter/summer
editions, indoor/outdoor editions, et cetera. These multiple editions are considered as separate
festival editions. As a result, there’s a difference between the number of festivals and the number
of festival editions. The latter number will always be higher than the number of festivals since
with all the festival types covered – film, food, music, art – there are cases of festivals that have
multiple editions over a year.
• Some festivals are annual but then have multiple editions by going to different cities. These
multiple editions are also considered as separate festival editions. This travelling to different
cities occurs particularly with food festivals and film festivals (‘on tour’ editions).
• Under the criterion of annual: weekly/monthly events were excluded from the research. For
music festivals, these were mainly numerous dance parties; for food festivals, these were mainly
the many weekly (food) markets; for film festivals, these were the so-called seasonal series. (See
below for more information).
• It’s about festivals that had an edition in 2017, including cancelled editions. A cancelled edition is a
festival that was announced but did not end up taking place. These are different than a festival that,
for example, announces that they will be skipping a year – this is not considered a cancellation
since the festival never communicated that it would indeed take place that year.
(continued…)
FOOD FESTIVALS
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- METHODOLOGY
Collecting and analysing festival data (continued)
• Music, film, food or art must stand central in what we respectively regard as a music festival, film
festival, food festival or art festival. Many festivals have so-called fringe programming such as readings,
workshops, bouncy castles, literary stage et cetera. It’s quite common that music festivals include food
trucks and that food festivals bring in DJs. There are also music festivals that screen films and film
festivals that are dedicated to food or pay particular attention to food between screenings. However, the
clear majority of festivals are quite easy to classify into music, film, food or art. Only a few inspired
uncertainty and discussion. This discussion around ‘What stands central?’ and the associated
classification of festivals is not unexpected since we see festivals as a natural category of phenomena
that show family resemblance and have prototypical exemplars that are easy recognisable (see Van
Vliet, 2012). It’s our scientific responsibility to explain how we dealt with uncertain cases positioned at
the fuzzy border of the festival category.
In selecting festivals, no further quantitative criteria were followed regarding the size of the festival,
neither in terms of the minimum capacity, nor in the actual number of visitors. Both small festivals (with
just hundreds of visitors) and large festivals (with tens of thousands of visitors) were included. Also, no
normative criteria were followed in regard to the quality of the festival. Whether it was a sing-along
festival, an avant-garde music festival, a large public-pulling festival or a village pop festival, they were all
entered into the database and count as equals. In short, we seek to do justice to the pure diversity of
festivals without bringing in any value judgement.
Based on this two-step process a list of, among other, food festivals were gathered that was presented in
the Festival Atlas 2016, including of course analyses of data collected on these festivals. For the 2017 data
collection the 2016 list was used as the basis – but not as a limitation. A further search for additional food
festivals was undertaken in a broad range of sources. This resulted in some additional data for 2016, as
well as new food festivals for 2017.
Further specific considerations on food festivals were made as is described extensively in the publication
on Festival Atlas 2017: Food Festivals. Also, further explanation on for instance the social media data
collection, the database set-up and data registration as well as the data analyses can be found in the
Festival Atlas 2016 and will also become available on the website in the second half of 2018.
FOOD FESTIVALS
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- FOOD FESTIVALS 2017
List of food festivals 2017
10 jaar Lansingerland Foodtruckfestival XXL - 24kitchen Festival - Alkmaar SMULT - All you need is food
- Allerhande Kerstfestival - Amsterdam BBQ Festival - Amsterdam Pizza & Pasta Festival - Appeltje Eitje -
Arnhem Proeft - Asian Food Festvial - Barrel Food Truck Fest - BAS Beers and Smokey Food Festival -
Beach Food Festival - Beach Food Festival Texel - Big Green Egg’s Flavour Fair - Big Taste Festival - Big
Texas BBQ - Biks Food Festival - Blije Bietjes Festival - Blue Food Festival - BonAppetito - Bourgondisch
Breda - Brandefood Foodtruckfestival - Bresjes op Wielen - Bumperkluiven - Butcher's Heaven - Chocoa
Festival - Chocolate Festival Schiedam - Cuisine Machine - Culifeest Gouda: Food & Festival Saturday -
CuliKaravaan - Culinair Heiloo - Culinair Roden - Culinesse - Culitruck Foodtruck Festival - De Culinaire
Verleiding - De Foodstoet - Delicious Dishes - Drank & Trucks / Regahfest - Dreumels Food Festival -
Dutch Chili Fest - Dutch Raw Food & Lifestyle Festival - Eeterij op Wielen - Eten op Rolletjes - Festival
Bodega Norton Culinair Zoetermeer - Festival Cacao aan De Kade - Festival der Zoete Verleiding -
Fijnproevers & Smaakbarbaren - Fletcher Foodtruck Festival - Food & Design Festival - Food Festival
Delft - Food Festival Nijkerk - Food Good Festival - Food Smaken op de Heuvelrug - Food Soul Festival -
Food Truck Festival Club Zand - Food Truck Festival Trek - Food Truck Parade - Foodfestijn 'n Bietje
Koekoek - Foodfestival aan de Zaan - Foodfestival Bakken & Klakken - Foodfestival PrikMar Grou -
Foodfestival Twente - Foodfestival Venhuizen - Foodiefest - Foodielicious - Foodnote Festival - Foodstock
- Foodtruck Festival Achterhoek - Foodtruck Festival Kampen - Foodtruck Festival Lekker aan de Lek -
Foodtruck Festival Pitig en Zoet - Foodtruck festival Share the Taste - Foodtruck Festival Steenwijk -
Foodtruck Festival Stoer Voer - Foodtruck Festival Ummer Trek - Foodtruck Genot - Foodtruckfestival
Aan Tafel - Foodtruckfestival Meerfood - Foodtruckfestival Voedertijd - Foodwall - Frank en Vrij -
Gezellige Zaken - Goed Eten Festival - Grill BBQ Festival - Haagse Wereld Hapjes - Halal Food Festival -
Hallo! Foodtruck Festival - Happen&Tappen Foodtruck Festival - Happie Heppie - Happy Sushi Festival -
Heerlijk Harlingen - Hello Food Festival - Het Rotterdams Foodtruck Experiment - Het Utrechts
Mosselfestival - Hippe Happen Festival - Hoogeveen Culinair - IJsselFoodFestival - Indonesian Food
Festival - Italian Street Food Festival - Japan Food Festival - Ketels aan de Kade - Kids Smaak Festival -
Kip Festival - Kokende Karren - Leiden Culinair - Lekker Laren - Lekker Venlo - Lekker.Uit Foodtruck
Festival - Lepeltje Lepeltje - Lindenhoff fine food farm - Lust Food Truck Festival Winterswijk - Maximaal
Genieten Food Truck Festival - MM Culinair - MultiCulinair Food Festival - Natural High Food Festival -
NDSM Food Festival - Nederland Kookt! - No Limit Foodtruck Festival - Origin Chocolate Event - Outdoor
Food Festival Zwolle - Over Koken Gesproken - Parkstad Culinair - Picknick in 't Park - Preuvenemert
Broenssem - Preuvenemint - Proef de Kookgoot - Proef de Krimpenerwaard - Proef Eet - Proef Mei
Culinair Festival - Proef Opmeer! - Proef Pampus - Proefpark Haarlem - Proeft Rotterdam - Proeven in
Groningen - Ramblas Foodtruck Festival - Regahfest BBQ Festival - Rollende keukens - Rotzooi Festival -
Rrrollend Foodtruck Festivals - Silverdome Food Truck Festival - Slow Food in het Park - Slow! Park -
SMAAK - Smaak aan Zee - Smaakkaravaan - Smaakmakers Festival - Smaek in 't Park - Smeerum -
SMKBLVRD - Soul & Food Festival - Spijs Foodfestival - Spoormarkt - Störrig Festival - Straatvoer -
Street Food Festival - Streetfood Festival Hellevoetsluis - Summerfood Festival Den Hoorn - Sushi
Festival - Sushi Festival Joy - Tafel op Zuid - Taste of Amsterdam - Texel Culinair - The Asian Food Market
- Toost Foodtruck Festival - Typisch Nijmegen - Umami Park - Van die dingen die gebeuren - Vegfest -
Veggie Food Fair - Veggie World - Vissch Culinair Visfestival - Vorkje Prik Foodfestival - We Love Food -
Werkspoor Festival - What the Fork?! Foodfestival - Wheels 'n Bites - World Food Day Rdam! - Zaak vol
Smaak Festival - Zelhems Food Truck Festival - ZOO'n ZOOmer Food Festival.
FOOD FESTIVALS
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The Team behind the Festival Atlas
Harry van Vliet
Head of Research
Initiator & data cruncher
Erik Hekman
Researcher
Social media specialist
FESTIVAL ATLAS - THE TEAM
64. THANK YOU!
Have a nice day!
harry@festivalatlas.nl
www.festivalatlas.nl
@FestivalAtlasNL
/festivalatlasNL
65. MXStudio
65
FESTIVAL ATLAS - COLOPHON
Colophon
Festival Atlas 2017: Food Festivals
Festival Atlas is a product of MXStudio/Cross-media Research Group, Amsterdam University of Applied
Sciences
May 2018
Author and editor: Harry van Vliet
Research team: Harry van Vliet and Erik Hekman
Design: MXStudio and Armchair Adventure
Realisation: Armchair Adventure
Publisher: Plan B publishers, Deventer
(c) Copyright Plan B Publishers
Website realisation: Refresh Interactive
Website: www.festivalatlas.nl
Contact: info@festivalatlas.nl
Facebook: /FestivalatlasNL
Twitter: @FestivalAtlasNL
The Festival Atlas was realised in cooperation with: