Applications for Wellington On a Plate 2010 Open

Wellington On a Plate organisers are calling for restaurants, foodies and event organisers to serve up something special for the festival’s second course.

Applications for Wellington On a Plate 2010 open tomorrow (Wednesday 31 March), with a large number of submissions expected following the success of the inaugural festival last year.

Participating restaurants reported between 20-60% increases in lunchtime covers during DINE Wellington when compared with the same period in 2008, and a number of the festival’s 30 events sold out within days of the programme being released.

Festival spokesperson Sarah Meikle says everyone involved in 2009 that organisers have spoken to has said they’ll be back this year, with a number of new businesses and event organisers also having been in touch eager to be on the menu.

“The plan for this year is to extend further throughout the region; we’ve held briefings from the city through to the Wairarapa and over 300 people have shown up across the region to find out how they can be involved.”

Wellington On a Plate was established by Grow Wellington and Positively Wellington Tourism last year to showcase the city’s food and beverage sector and develop culinary tourism in the capital.

“The buy-in from the industry last year blew us out of the water. The challenge for 2010 is to step it up a few notches and make the festival even bigger and better; judging by the incredible ideas that we’ve been hearing about, that’s actually not going to be too much of a problem,” Ms Meikle says.

There are two ways businesses can be involved in the Wellington On a Plate festival. Restaurants can take part in DINE Wellington – a set menu event that runs throughout the festival – or anyone can propose an event of their own.

“We’re looking for events and experiences that aren’t on offer elsewhere or at any other time of year. Wellington On a Plate is about celebrating regional cuisine and putting something special on the table,” Ms Meikle says.

Full details and festival applications are available on www.WellingtonOnaPlate.com. Applications for Wellington On a Plate 2010 close on Friday April 30.


Background

Positively Wellington Tourism (regional tourism organisation) and Grow Wellington (regional economic development agency) established the Wellington On a Plate festival in 2009 to showcase the city’s food and beverage sector, and to develop culinary tourism in the capital. The two organisations plan and market the event in liaison with the food sector and hospitality industry. It’s an unusual management format as neither organisation usually gets involved in event management, but we wanted to make it happen and we were the only ones mad enough to try and pull it off in the midst of an economic downturn. Luckily it worked.


Notes for Editors

Wellington On a Plate 2010 will run from August 14-29.

Punters will be anything but starved for choice during Wellington On a Plate 2010. In 2009, 42 restaurants participated in the DINE Wellington event and 30 events took place under the Wellington On a Plate festival banner. This was far in excess of our expectations; targets had been set at 12 restaurants and three festival events respectively. The programme will be revealed at the start of July.

The 2009 festival was a resounding social and economic success. Many events sold out and restaurants reported between 20-60% increases in lunch covers over the festival period compared to the same month the previous year.

A survey of 2009 restaurant participants showed almost half were using new local suppliers as a result of the festival and the relationships it had fostered.