02 January 2018

To celebrate the humble burger, BurgerFest 2018 is taking place on January 22nd - 29th 2018 in venues across the country. This innovative food festival that is designed to bring food lovers to venues nationwide, will showcase the most creative and delicious burgers Ireland has to offer, as well as hosting burger-related events, tastings and demos to wash away the January blues.

The festival is the brainchild of the experienced and creative team behind Festival Crew, who between them have over 30 years experience creating and managing large scale innovative and successful food and drinks festivals over the past seven years, including Oktoberfest Beag, FEAST and Cork Food Festival, each attracting up to 28,000 visitors.

Over 300 venues throughout Ireland will be participating in the eight day festival which culminates in a competition to find Ireland’s Best Burger, as well as the best burger in every county. Pubs, restaurants, hotels, cafés and fast food outlets across the 32 counties will be competing for their signature burger to win the prestigious title. The public will get the opportunity to vote for their favourite burger using the hashtag #IrishBurgerFest, as part of a strong national digital campaign that will accompany the festival.

Ernest Cantillon, Co-Founder of Festival Crew and owner of some of Cork’s leading food and drink venues, including Electric and Sober Lane, said “As a venue owner myself I know that, rather than drawing in crowds, festivals often take people away from the pubs and restaurants. What we want to do is to bring the festival to the venues and drive footfall for them, as well as putting on a great event for the public. Our business model is low cost and low risk, and has proved to be hugely successful. We already have some amazing venues on board for the Burger Festival and we are looking forward to working with many more across the country.”

Participation is only €95 per venue, and each venue can decide how they want to celebrate the glorious burger - by organising pop-up events, Man versus Food challenges, food demonstrations or creating their own unique daily burger specials to wow the public. The festival has a track record in driving footfall and sales during the traditionally quiet post-Christmas period, with one venue reporting burger sales up 300% last year.

For more information check out www.thefestivalcrew.com

And to sign your venue up for this exciting festival, or get in touch about partnership opportunities email burger@thefestivalcrew.ie