Reasons to be cheerful...

I attended a festival over the weekend and heard a well-known DJ act play their 13 year old track sampling an even older 1979 ‘Ian Drury and the Blockheads’ sample, with a 3 minute long repeat of our ‘reasons to be cheerful’. Despite the initial discomfort of realising I was old enough to have heard this same track live in the year of its release, I looked around and it was easy to believe that there were many reasons to be cheerful. The sun was shining with London feeling distinctively more like Barcelona than us Brits are used to; face painters and glitter artists were working flat out; I was surrounded by food trucks offering everything from the usual burger and chips to Thai and Chinese food and artisan pizza; and the usual warm ‘festival’ lager of 20 years ago had been replaced with innovative operators who had converted Air Streams and camper vans of all different shapes and sizes into bars offering craft beers and an array cocktails.

As I looked around, it felt difficult to match the surroundings with the doom and gloom of the headlines we see every day but the song lyrics were a reminder that throughout many times in the past, we have needed a reminder of our reasons to be cheerful. In the last week alone, I have read stories of a dearth of labour within the licensed trade; a lack of consumer confidence and numerous stories of insolvency and ‘concept fatigue’ hitting the trade. The festival environment is in some ways a ‘bubble’ which is far removed from the 365 day a year trade that grass roots restaurants and bars see but I couldn’t help but wonder whether that bubble was a perfect environment to polarise all of the good things and opportunities which are available to the trade.

In the news this week have been stories of the resurgence of the wet led pub and a dismissal of the rather depressing research about the future workers and leaders of our trade, Generation Z, who have been unfairly labelled as avocado-on-toast and health obsessed lazy youngsters who never have a prayer of getting onto the property ladder and therefore choose to spend their money on Instagram-worthy experiences rather than drinking copious amounts of alcohol as the youth of the past has done. What this does tell us however is that our industry is as subject to trends as any other industry. Consumer preferences may change over time but a common thread throughout the years is that most customers will buy into an experience, a festival being a prime example of that. So what is the answer to weathering these changes in trends? Innovation and a commitment to providing an experience. The craft beer scene has outgrown all expectations over the last few years and the innovation in this area has spread to other aspects of the wet- led trade including the production of gin and other craft spirits. In the main, this fresh and innovative approach has not lent itself in the same way to food which has caused the explosion in restaurant premises we saw in the last 5 to 10 years to suddenly grind to a halt. The operators bucking the trend, particularly those with a food offer, are innovating and focussing on other aspects of their offer. You can now participate in escaping a locked room through a series of clues and team work as a precursor to your meal or even practice axe throwing before (thankfully not during!) enjoying a well-deserved beer. 

Whilst there is no doubt that there are significant headwinds challenging the industry at the moment, stepping out of your comfort zone and consideration of offering something a little out of the ordinary can ensure that you build a base of loyal customers to see you through these testing times.