Effective as of April, Ludlow Food Festival have completely rebranded, with a whole new image, new logos, and a new website.
Q and A with David Chantler, Chair of Ludlow Food Festival for three Years.
Ludlow Food Festival has been around for 30 years, with the original food festival in its 30th year this September. How and when did you get involved with Ludlow Food Festival?
We moved to the area in 2002, the year after I had been appointed first CEO of the then newly formed West Mercia Probation Trust. We had heard about the Food Festival and volunteered to help in that first year.
Why the rebrand now? What did you want to achieve with the new look and image?
We have rebranded a few times before: It is important to keep the content and the image fresh, particularly for an event that comes round year on year, at the same time each year. It cannot be allowed to become the “same old, same old”. This year was a particular challenge as the whole hospitality sector emerged from the shadow of Covid, and we did not want to rest on our laurels of ‘being the first food festival’; we needed to be back setting the pace.
What was the aim of the new website? Was it important now to keep up to date with modern browsing demands, ie to be more mobile friendly and interactive / informative as a digital presence?
We wanted the new website to be easier to access and navigate on all platforms, but especially on mobile one. We used to print, and sometimes had to scrap a lot of paper programmes, lists etc; which, quite apart from not sitting well with our sustainability credentials, did not support keeping information up to date. We are always looking at new products, new presenters and exhibitors, therefore we need to be able to be accurate.
How has the food festival brand changed over these last few years? As a result of time, and the impact of Covid, which was catastrophic to public events?
With the expansion of the food festival sector in the years running up to Covid we already faced challenges and needed to refocus. We chose to do so on revisiting our founding principles around food and drink, quality and sustainability, locality and provenance - not try to be a generic day out. We have three events throughout the year and together they are a freestanding offer, delivered by a not for profit, locally based company. We don’t do other things, we aim to be the best at what we do.
There is a new Marches Food and Drink logo that covers the three festivals you organise. The Food Festival is well-known as the first food and drink festival in the UK. That’s quite a legacy, with more competition from other food festivals in the UK, how do you think Ludlow Food Festival holds up against the competition today?
Without wanting to sound all management-speak about it, I think most organisations face a challenge about whether they adopt a niche or generalist approach, and we have very much plumped for the former. And in many ways it is obvious why we would. We are not profit driven; our business is about the products and supporting the producers. Of course we could get more people through the gates, but to what end? In fact we have had very positive feedback from visitors and exhibitors that they like Ludlow because there is the opportunity to engage with each other over the shared interest in food and drink.
What does the rebrand mean for the future? Is it reflective of what you want to achieve over the next few years?
Very much so. I hope people find it clear to read, can see the links between the three events and understand how the amazing raw materials of this region become the wide range of local products that are showcased at the festivals.
What do you want to offer people who have been coming for years, and new festival-goers, for whom this is a brand new experience? Have you tried to keep the same known and loved format to a certain extent, but still offer new and original elements to keep it fresh?
Once you are confident about your principles you can afford to look at new ways to demonstrate them, and although the golden thread of continuity runs through the September festival in particular, let me give you a few examples of where we have made major changes. A few years ago almost all of the September festival was under one marquee, probably the largest tent you could imagine, but it got increasingly crowded and in the end was getting in the way of visitors getting up close to the stalls. Having visited the massive Slow Food, “Salone de Gusto” in Turin, we were highly impressed by their pen fronted lines of stalls, so now we have long lines of easily accessible stalls - and not the biggest tent in the world! Another example would be introducing the fire stage in the Inner Bailey, sacrificing selling space for one central spectacle at the heart of the festival.
How did the other two festivals come about? The Magnalonga, and the Spring Festival?
Let’s start with Magnalonga, which was a direct lift from our Italian twin town which is in St Pietro near Verona: Several of us had been over the years and there it is a much bigger event where the vineyards compete to offer the various food courses along the walk, and everyone relaxes in the town square afterwards with supplies of their local product. In fact there is a Japanese version as well: They copied it from us but won’t believe our protestations that we in turn got it from the Italians and credit Ludlow with originating it.
The Spring Festival is a little less clear and sort of emerged from a feeling we could offer something early in the year to bookend the summer season, starting with spring and ending with September. The idea was celebratory, coming out of a Marches winter, looking forward to the coming growing and harvest seasons and a bit more light-hearted – the original working title was “Bangers, Beer and Bread”. Today we have developed the Marches Transport Festival and the SIBA Beer Festival into ‘two festivals within a festival’, alongside the children’s events, bands and comedy, and of course the food.
How important is the partnership with sponsors eg Kadai?
As a not-for-profit organisation how important is the role of volunteer stewards from the community?
Both are vital to who we are and what we do. As a not for profit we rely on the volunteers; it is their effort for the good of their town. I would not dream of using volunteer labour in anything that was designed to create a private profit. And that volunteering ethos extends to the Board, of course; the majority of which are elected directly by the members who are those same volunteers who have signed up and dedicated their time to the festivals for many years.
We work towards having smaller sponsors who make cash contributions which we are very grateful for; without these businesses getting involved, we would struggle to produce such high-quality events. Not only do our sponsors support with capital but they support us with their expertise, suggest developments, and help us move forward. As an organisation we produce nothing, we are here to publicise, encourage and work with those who do produce.
The joint work with Kadai is a good example: The partnership brings other partners together in developing the work around live fire cooking, where we hope Ludlow is becoming a centre of excellence. What a context to show the quality of local produce! To sum up our approach, it is to create an environment in which the whole is always more than the sum of parts, and that is in my opinion how a small voluntary group can help create value in its community.
The rebranding of Ludlow Food Festival was handled by The Visual Works, a team of local experts in branding, design, and digital marketing. With nearly 30 years of experience on Ludlow Food Festival projects, they conducted a stakeholder survey and ran a branding workshop to better understand the festival's mission, vision, values and purpose. They developed concepts for the new branding and visualised ideas with real-world mock-ups. The new brand was then rolled out across various platforms, including the website, an advertising campaign on social media, leaflets, and posters, delivering a fresh and relevant identity that aligns with the festival's core values.
Read more about the exciting event happening on our fire stage this September!
