Waitrose Food and Drink Festival 2024
Wildfarmed toastie bar
About the event
The annual Waitrose Food and Drink Festival has been held at Tobacco Dock since 2022 and over that time has quickly evolved to become one of the busiest consumer events we host. Interest from attendees and exhibitors alike has snowballed and we’ve been able to help the organisers make best use of our versatile spaces to accommodate their growing guest list.
The event takes place over 3 days in late November and is a stunning gateway to the Christmas season, offering attendees a sumptuous feast of festive inspiration for food lovers, from tastings from suppliers and masterclasses with chefs including Angela Hartnett, to cocktail making and wreath-making workshops and the opportunity to ‘Meet the Experts’ to get professional advice and ideas.
Word of mouth has been an effective means of increasing the supplier list. 2024 saw 50% more food and drink suppliers than the previous year. One of the objectives of the evolving event was to widen the typical Waitrose demographic that they’d welcomed in previous years. One of the ways they achieved this was through offering suppliers the opportunity to host full room takeovers, with interactive experiences such as a DJ and Margarita bar hosted by Pimentae and a toastie bar from Wildfarmed with a sit-down chef’s table.
Facilities and facts
Room to grow
Our adaptable capacity has given the event the room to increase their footfall without minimising the experience for guests
Great communication
The Waitrose and Tobacco Dock teams have developed a strong working relationship over the years, making planning and delivery more straightforward
Beautiful backdrop
Waitrose loved the look and feel of our listed building, which adds a sense of place and atmosphere to the event
Why Tobacco Dock?
As a growing event, the Waitrose team and their creative brand experience agency, We Are Collider, loved the fact that they were able to evolve the layout over time. With over 50 spaces and a combination of distinct areas, it’s easy for organisers to expand their footfall year-on-year, with initial years taking up a smaller tenancy with ample scope to expand as their guest list grows.
The spaces themselves were a big draw for the organisers. Having a destination venue that offers a sense of place made their lives easier when it came to theming. Having such a variety of spaces and offering original features such as listed timber beams, glass walls and exposed brickwork means organisers have less to do to create an atmospheric event than if they were to set up in a large-scale, empty event space.
Our location was another tick in the box for the organisers. Just a 20-minute trip on the Tube and Overground from Waterloo and a 15-minute walk from Tower Bridge, attendees to the Food and Drink Festival could easily ‘make a day of it’ and go on to enjoy a day in London after their visit to the event.
Our experienced team was another reason that the Waitrose and We Are Collider organisers gave for their successive returns to Tobacco Dock. We always view events taking place here as collaborative experiences and place enormous focus on developing strong working relationships with our organisers’ event teams. Waitrose commented on how this strength of relationship and professionalism of the Tobacco Dock Event Operations and Duty Operations teams made their experience more enjoyable.
Ground Level
The End Results
The event footfall has grown by more than 40% over the three years that Waitrose has held their Food and Drink Festival at Tobacco Dock. The flexibility of our layout means that events such as this can organically grow their tenancy over the years to accommodate their developing audiences.
Something the Waitrose team identified last year was that there was an issue with waiting time outside the entrance gates. This year they used both Wapping Lane and Pennington Street East entrances, allowing them to disperse the footfall and manage waiting times.
In the past, the event had been more heavily skewed to drinks, but now this is far more balanced, with a large increase in the number of food exhibitors. The number of exhibitors, sponsors and suppliers rose to its largest number yet – 250, up from 189 in the previous year. Much of this growth is down to word of mouth between producers; the event is an ideal opportunity for suppliers to tell their brand story and share their produce first-hand.
This was the first year that Waitrose was able to house all the wines together. These were showcased in the North Dock, while across the courtyard was the very popular cheese room in North Vaults – a perfect pairing!
There were +100 bookable experiences that attendees could take part in, from whisky tastings and Espresso Martini masterclasses to canapé building and wreath making. There were also some free drop-in masterclasses which you could sign up for on the day and Meet the Experts sessions.
Suppliers took the opportunity to create fun and interactive activations with several full room takeovers, and photo booths dotted around the venue and ‘spin-to-win’ giveaways which proved to be very popular.
Tobacco Dock has been a fantastic home for the Waitrose Food & Drink Festival.
Its unique character and flexible spaces have made it easy for us to grow and evolve the event each year, leading to our biggest and most ambitious festival yet in 2024. Expanding across both floors meant we could welcome nearly 10,000 guests and create a smooth, engaging experience for over 250 suppliers showcasing more than 1,000 products. As we’ve expanded, their team has been right there with us, who are knowledgeable, proactive, and always ready with smart solutions. Their support during planning and delivery is invaluable, and having dedicated team members onsite throughout the event gives us complete confidence that any problems will be solved.