By Richard Chu
Can Vancouver have too much going on at once?
It can if you manage a consumer show.
Eat! Vancouver Food + Cooking Festival was hit with a perfect storm this June that resulted in the first drop in attendance in the event’s nine-year history.
Total attendance for the show fell 17% this year to 32,341. The drop occurred even though Eat! Vancouver had a 10% increase in its number of exhibitors and was hosting a major international chef competition along with its traditional lineup of cooking stages, cheese seminars and wine and spirit tastings.
The consumer show had to compete with a number of events that were running over the same weekend this year. They ranged from the mixed martial arts expo held next door at the Vancouver Convention Centre to the Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival in False Creek.
But Eat! Vancouver was hit hardest by the Stanley Cup finals. The show opened on the same day as Game 5 between the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins. That forced show managers to change the event schedule to include the game on a big-screen TV they brought in for the day.
Heather Angeard, partner at Executive Event Production, which manages the show, said her firm decided to spend the money to bring in a big screen and run special ads telling people they could watch the game from the show floor.
“We had questions from people who wanted to come, but wanted to make sure they could watch the game,” Angeard said. “It was top of mind for people, so if you can’t beat them, join them.”
While Game 5 dampened attendance on the first day of the show, the Stanley Cup finals were also blamed for the decline in per-person spending at Eat! Vancouver.
“I think people were all spent out. A lot of die-hard fans were going out to bars each night, or you were spending it on pizza and so on, sitting in front of the TV watching the game,” said Angeard. “You can’t continue to go out every other night to cheer on the Canucks and still have a chunk of change in your pocket to go to other events.”
Despite the lower attendance, Eat! Vancouver remains one of the fastest-growing consumer shows in the region. According to historical data from Business in Vancouver’s annual list of the biggest trade and consumer shows in the Lower Mainland, Eat! Vancouver is the third-fastest growing show in Metro Vancouver (up by 30% in attendance over the past five years). It is second only to the EPIC Sustainable Living Expo, which has increased its attendance by 54%, and the West Coast Women’s Show, which has grown more than 75%.
Executive Event’s Eat! Fraser Valley show, which is held at Tradex in Abbotsford, has also grown nearly 20% over the past three years since its launch in 2008. It is hoping to grow further this year with new additions being brought over from the Vancouver show such as the CityTV master chef competition, which includes a chocolate contest and displays of edible show pieces.
“It’s Tradex’s 20th anniversary later this month,” noted Angeard, “so we’re hoping to get some energy going earlier, because it’s a big deal for Abbotsford.”