Hop In The Spa, soaking and relaxing in beer
18-3-2016
Hop In The Spa is the first and only spa in Oregon to bring the benefits of beer inspired ingredients, minerals, and proprietary additives into cedar soaking tubs. Benefits of a spa with hop include improving skin tone, reducing stress, and detoxification, all while enjoying a pint of beer.
Churned Creamery serves ice cream with a French twist
17-3-2016
At Churned Creamery they work with the BGItaly gelato machine to show the freshness and craftsmanship of the ice cream. Besides that, there is a French twist: they also serve the ice cream in croissants.
De CowGum: kauwgom met vleessmaak
17-3-2016
Kauwgom kennen we sinds jaar en dag, in alle smaken en maten. De kauwgom die nu ontwikkeld is, is echter weer iets heel anders: de CowGum. Alles hieraan komt neer op vlees. De smaak, de geur en de kleur zorgen voor een vlees-achtige ervaring en met een reden.
Nutella Festival
29-2-2016
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.
‘Barbers, Booze & Tattoos’
26-2-2016
It is not easy nowadays to be the owner of a disco/nightclub with the ongoing decrease of visitors the last couple of years. Club Red in Leeuwarden has an extended calendar including ‘Barbers, Booze & Tattoos’. A men’s night out.
TonTon Club XL is coming back!
24-2-2016
In 2016 the TonTon Club XL is coming back to the ‘Westergasfabriek’ in Amsterdam. For up to two weekends in March you can enjoy pinball games, shooting games, air hockey and many more.
Food festivals: prevent queues or make sure your guests enjoy the queue…
19-2-2016
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
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.
Bubblehouses, mobile homes and treehouses by Insolite by Logis
11-2-2016
The Fédération Internationale des Logis, the quality label of small European hotel–restaurants with 17 affiliated hotels in the Netherlands, reinforces the current hotel supply with two new brands: Maison by Logis and Isolite by Logis.
A virtual reality arcade, Escape Room plus!
9-2-2016
This weekend I read an article about ‘Project StarCade’ which will bring a virtual reality arcade to Los Angeles. It will be opening this spring at a yet undisclosed location. This location will be a pilot center before expanding to other locations in the US or in Europe. As we just wrote a whitepaper on Escape Rooms in the Netherlands, it’s intriguing to think about the developments….