21st July 2020.
This year the extremely popular Chester Food and Drink Festival which is normally held at The Chester Racecourse in April had to be cancelled due to Covid 19. However, all is definitely not lost. Club member Izzy Grey who is the founder and Director of We Love Good Times Ltd has teamed up with Taste Cheshire, Marketing Cheshire CH1 Chester BID and Chester West and Chester Council to organise a Chester Food and Drink week in September this year. The event won’t take place at the Racecourse as usual, but has been designed to creatively keep us socially distanced and will be dotted around many areas of Chester.
During this pandemic Izzy has worked tirelessly to promote and support the struggling hospitality sector in and around Chester. As a Club we applaud her and support her in all she does for our city. To this end we have also decided to become one of the sponsors for this event. To date Izzy has seven sponsors but she still needs more to achieve all she wants for this brand new exciting event. I would urge you all to read about Izzy’s plans and check out the fabulous sponsorship opportunities for your company.
If Izzy Grey is behind the planning and marketing of this event then I am confident that it will be a huge success.
Julie Swinnerton
Chairman Chester Business Club
Plan so far …
Dates: Monday 14th to Sunday 20th September 2020
Location: Chester – inc Hoole / Handbridge / plus out of town venues ie The Chester Fields (for example).
A Not-for-profit week-long event in celebration of the city’s diverse and dynamic food and drink sector.
Summary
To create a brand new week to celebrate our Food & Drink sector which is exciting, dynamic and really good quality. To encourage locals to ‘rediscover the city they love’ and to move people around the city safely – discovering new venues, tastes and experiences.
This week is a celebration of our fabulous hospitality sector along with Taste Cheshire, as we have sadly lost the Chester Food & Drink Festival this year. Chester Food & Drink Week is being created to support the festival and the local food and drink community as a whole, at a time when it is needed the most.
The entire week will centre around a beautifully hand-drawn map of the city (inc Hoole & Handbridge) with a focus on our outside spaces including the river front, in collaboration with Marketing Cheshire.
We are currently creating a week of unique food and drink events, for example an Italian Picnic Sunset Cruise on The Lady Diana and a Champagne and Oyster experience at a secret location. We are aiming to have one headline event per day. We are also inviting venues to offer a unique food / drink experience so they can also be included on the map (a unique ‘pop-in’ experience).
Around 30,000 maps will be printed to guide people around the city on a new food and drink trail.
We have commissioned Living Vacariously Art (local artists) to create the map and we are also incorporating CWAC’s cycle routes into the artwork. A Chester passport is also being created to collect points, a full passport can be exchanged for tickets to the Chester Food, Drink & Lifestyle Festival 2021.
The week will focus around the following events and activities;
- Taste Cheshire Farmers Markets.
- Seven headline, ticketed events in collaboration with WLGT Ticket Zone – one on each day.
- A trail of unique food and drink ‘pop-in’ experiences around the city.
- Your ideas are welcome!
30,000 maps will be distributed to hotels, restaurants, bars, coffee shops, independent retailers, offices and the Chester Business Park with a city-wide coordinated press, social media and marketing campaign. A dedicated website www.chesterfoodanddrinkweek.co.uk is also being created to support the event.
If this week is a success, we will be running it again with Taste Cheshire on the run up to the Chester Food & Drink Festival 2021 (Monday 29th March to Sunday 4th April) – and then twice a year from then on (Easter and September).
The map will need to be used in printed form plus form the main part of the new website (interactive map).
www.chesterfoodanddrinkweek.co.uk / www.chesterfoodanddrinkweek.com
Our new Instagram and Facebook pages are also live.
Both @chesterfoodanddrinkweek.
Brand;
I have spoken to Stephen Wundke about the brand – and the fact that it should ‘nod’ to the Chester Food, Drink & Lifestyle Festival brand in some way, so it is recognised as being a part of it.
I have instructed Adam Mclean Design to start work on the brand and logo pack. (WLGT are sponsoring the branding work).
I am thinking that we have a beautiful fold-out map produced and printed with a huge print run (30,000) for every hotel, restaurant, bar, coffee shop, independent retailer, office, business park etc – so everyone in the city will pick it up at some point including all workers, locals and visitors.
I will produce a separate marketing plan, but needless to say that all partners would need to get right behind this by sharing on social, listing on websites and including on emailers with activity on a daily basis. Our featured venues really need to help spread the word too.
The new website will predominantly be an interactive map with links to events and ‘pop-in’ experiences around the city.
Ticketed Headline Events;
We are currently talking to local venues about hosting one of seven headline food and drink events – Monday to Sunday.
Here are some ideas;
- Italian themed picnic on a Sunday sunset cruise on The Lady Diana (Chester Boats) on Sunday 20th September.
- Oysters with champagne tasting at a secret location.
- One-off Tasting Menus.
- Celebrity Chef dinner at one of Chester’s restaurants.
- Teddy Bears picnic one of our outside spaces.
- ‘Rum Bar Bar’ with Exotic Booze Club (rum journey on Saturday 19th afternoon around the city).
- Etc (more ideas welcome)
The seven venues will be featured on the map.
These headline events will be designed to show off the city at its very best. Unique and exciting collaborations with those operators who share the vision of a united and dynamic city. They will be ticketed through the new WLGT Ticket Zone. We won’t make any money on this as margins will be tight and we need to ensure we keep the prices as reasonable as possible for the customer, but it will give us a chance to spread the word about WLGT Ticket Zone and open up future collaborations with more venues.
Unique pop-in experiences;
We then have space for another 23 venues – who need to offer a unique ‘pop-in’ experience to be included on the map.
Here are some ideas;
- A Chester cocktail with a crazy garnish.
- An Espresso Martini with a millionaires shortbread on the side.
- A Cheshire Cheese picnic bag to enjoy in one of our green spaces.
- A locally brewed pint and a local pork / veggie pie.
- A Wagyu burger and a bottle of beer.
- A beer flight.
- A wine flight and cheese board.
- Mama’s meatballs and a glass of red at The Yard for £10.
- Etc (more ideas welcome)
These spaces will be offered on a first come, first served basis.
Costs;
Production of map (Living Vicariously Art) = £400 / Deva Fest are sponsoring
Brand £150 / WLGT are sponsoring
Design of printed map £350 (PC sum)
Map printing (30,000) – cost TBC / CWAC may sponsor (due to inclusion of Active Travel Trail)
Design of passport £350 (PC sum)
Printing of passport – cost TBC
Website / interactive map £2000 (PC sum)
Map distribution around the city – cost TBC
Digital Marketing support package – cost TBC
We’re looking for a minimum £5,000.
Sponsors so far;
- Stephen Wundke from Taste Cheshire has pledged £250.
- Izzy Grey from WLGT has pledged £250
- Steven Hesketh from The Chester Hospitality Association has pledged £250.
- Phil Marston from Deva Fest has pledged £400
- Epay Merchant Services have pledged £250
- Jolliffes have pledged £250 (TBC)
- Chester Business Club have pledged £250
- Qbunk have pledged £500
- CH1 Chester BID have pledged £250
Total so far £2650
Still needed £2350
Sponsorship Packages:
£250 Sponsorship package includes;
1: Logo and short bio on the printed map (30,000 to be printed and distributed around the city)
2: Inclusion in one of the press releases
3: Listing on the new Chester Food & Drink website
£500 Sponsorship package includes;
1: All of the above plus …
2: Regular shout-outs on WLGT social media for being a valued sponsor of Chester Food & Drink Week – without you we wouldn’t have been able to put it on (posts / stories / tweets etc) from when you confirm your sponsorship until the end of September 2020.
£750 Sponsorship package includes;
1: All of the above plus …
2: A full WLGT Bronze promotional package for 12 months; including
- Full page listing in our local lifestyle directory which can be updated as often as needed (www.wlgt.co.uk).
- All of your Offers listed on www.wlgt.co.uk (if applicable).
- We will review your business and create a feature plus distribute it throughout all of our social channels.
- Unlimited retweets (as long as you tag us in)
- Unlimited Instagram and FB stories (as long as you tag us in).
£1,000 Sponsorship package includes;
HEADLINE SPONSORSHIP (more space on the map dedicated to our headline sponsor)
1: All of the above plus …
2: A full WLGT Silver promotional package for 12 months; including
- New – Local PR service – we want to tell your stories, and we’ll do that in our new Best of Chester section on www.wlgt.co.uk which you’ll find at the top of our home page.
- New – Local Reportage service – we’ll be getting out and about and reporting back to our punters with interviews and mini-movies filmed with you in your business – at a safe distance of course.
See our YouTube channel – click here
- Instagram training / social media training sessions for you and your team (Four x 1 hour sessions for up to 3 people each session).
I have worked in some flexibility with all of our packages, so if there is something unique or specific you would like us to include – just let me know and we’ll do our best.