Festival F&B: what to plan per head, and what breaks first
Food and drink decide how long people stay and how the night is remembered. Most of the failures are not culinary - they are queue maths and cash flow.
Start from dwell time, not from menus
The question is not what to sell but how long you want people on site and what they will need in that time. A six-hour club night and a ten-hour open air have completely different consumption curves, and the second one needs food, not just drinks.
Plan the peaks, not the average. Everyone wants a drink at the same three moments: doors, the break before the headliner, and the last hour. A layout that handles the average will fail all three times.
Queue length is the real KPI
A guest who waits too long stops buying and starts complaining, and both cost you. Count service points against expected peak demand rather than total attendance, and put the fastest-moving product on its own dedicated point.
Separate payment from pouring where volume justifies it. It looks like more staff; it is usually fewer minutes per guest.
The things that break
Payment. A single card terminal on a weak signal will stop the whole bar. Offline-capable terminals and a tested fallback are not optional at a mountain or field location.
Cooling and power. Cooling draws more than people plan for, and it draws it at the hottest hour. Size the generator for the peak, not the nameplate.
Staffing across shifts. The last hour is the one that damages the reputation, and it is the shift nobody wants. Pay it accordingly.
Waste and deposit
Reusable cup systems are standard at Swiss events now and change the operation: return points, counting, and staff to run them. Budget the labour, not just the cups.
Cash-up and stock, the tab nobody opens
Every service point needs an opening count, a closing count and one person accountable for both. Without it, shrinkage is invisible until the season is over and the margin is gone.
Handovers between shifts are where the discrepancies appear. Count at the handover, not only at the end of the night.
Menu length is an operations decision
A short menu moves faster, orders better and wastes less. Every extra product adds a decision at the counter, a line in the stock list and a risk of running out of one ingredient that blocks three items.
Decide the range against your slowest hour, not your most creative idea. The signature drink is worth it when it is one of five, not one of twenty.
How many bar points does an event need?
Size them against peak demand rather than total visitors - doors, the break before the headliner and the final hour - not against an average across the night.
What causes most F&B problems at outdoor events?
Payment and power. A card terminal without offline capability and a generator sized below the cooling peak will both fail at the busiest moment.