Food festivals have historically served only one party; the festival organizers. We're rewriting the book on how to run an equitable food event by becoming the anti-festival: chefs are fully reimbursed and we turn the time together into a paid vacation with the chef experience, building community, and fostering collaboration as our main goals. Best of all, the joy comes through in the food.
We pride ourselves on taking care of 100% of the chef costs to participate with a goal of making access to each event as equitable as possible. This includes not only travel and accommodations but the chef programming and entertainment too.
Your ticket cost reflects current trends in travel, accommodations, inflationary forces on food costs, paying the host venue fairly, and covering the staff's pay.
Curious about the event, our COVID policies, or other ways to get involved? Read more below!
Questions about the ticket pricing & fees
What are your COVID policies and procedures?
You may notice a 21% fee added at checkout to each ticket purchased. This fee breaks down as follows: 20% to the event venue staff front of house including servers, backwait, and support staff. The remaining 1% goes towards associated venue buyout fees.
The simple answer is: they're as cheap as we can offer them. In order to provide the experience for the chefs, pay for the venue, venue staff, entertainment, travel, and accommodations, we have to charge to cover our event costs. Thanks to our brand partners, we derive enough revenue to supplement the ticket prices as well as cover the organizational costs required to operate throughout the year.
The reality is, COVID Is still out there and we may never see it disappear. After taking an almost 2 year hiatus, we designed protocols using guidance from the CDC and additional health professionals to reduce the probability our event could act as a vector for transmission.
Chefs are required to provide proof of vaccination and subsequent boosters before confirming their participation. Within 24 hours of departure, chefs are required to provide a negative antigen test and are again tested upon arrival and before being allowed into the group. Indie Chefs brings a Cue Health PCR machine to each event as well as antigen tests to test anytime someone is known to have been exposed or is exhibiting COVID like symptoms. Chefs sign a participation contract outlining our procedures as well as promise to do their best to avoid large gatherings or other socializing leading up to and during the event week.
To date, we've had a couple of scares but have never had a COVID outbreak or known transmission happen since starting back up in August 2021.
In addition, we recommend all attending guests both test for COVID before arriving at the event as well as wear a mask when appropriate. When possible, we create outdoor dining spaces with fresh air as the best prevention. We ask that guests wear masks when leaving their tables, venturing indoors, or using the restroom. We also ask that the guests wash their hands frequently, do not share food or utensils, and bow out if they're exhibiting any COVID-like symptoms, event if they think it's just allergies.
You may have noticed the pie chart above leaves zero budget for organizational and other costs. That's because without our brand partners, we wouldn't be able to do this. We search for brands that have the best interests at heart for the hospitality industry. They blaze trails on creating new revenue streams for operators, providing tools to streamline their operations, and are constantly looking for ways to improve the lives of hospitality workers.
