2013 Real Food Festival – Invitation to Participate
What is the Real Food Festival?
The Real Food Festival, now in its third year on the Sunshine Coast, is a fantastic celebration of the
wonderful variety of food that Sunshine Coast producers, manufacturers, retailers and restaurants have to
offer and a brilliant way to talk, taste and buy from them.
The Sunshine Coast’s most exciting local food event….
Today people care about where their food comes from and want to understand why their food choices
matter; for health, community and environmental reasons. The Real Food Festival is the only event of this
scale, in this region, that is genuinely dedicated to championing, supporting and promoting the best local
food available.
Foods and drinks will only be accepted if they have been produced under the three interconnected principles
of ‘good, clean and fair’.

Good food is tasty and flavoursome, stimulating and satisfying for the senses

Clean food is produced in a way that respects ecosystems, animals, bio-diversity and the landscape;
its consumption is not harmful to human health

Fair food production is respectful of social justice, meaning fair pay and conditions for all involved;
prices must be affordable for consumers and fair for producers.
Saturday 7 September & Sunday 8 September – 9am to 4pm
Visitors follow the food chain from Paddock to Plate, encompassing everything
related to food. Held at the beautiful Maleny Showgrounds, the Real Food Festival
offers demonstrations, entertainment, competitions, and over 120 exhibits and
displays, including:
- Sunshine Coast farmers and growers
- Farm & garden suppliers
- Artisanal food producers
- Large & small manufacturers
- Food growing experts
- Specialty retailers
- Restaurants and cafés
- Freshly prepared foods
- Coffee, tea and beverages
- Major gate entry prize draw
- Cooking demonstrations
- Talks, lectures and workshops
- Food-related art, books, kitchenware
- Health & wellness advice
- Children’s entertainment
- Farm animals
Why you must take part in the Real Food Festival
Join us at the Real Food Festival and become a part of the biggest showcase of the most authentic produce
assembled in the Sunshine Coast, giving you access to an audience of thousands of passionate food-lovers.
Over 4000 visitors flooded through the gates of the one-day inaugural Real Food Festival in 2011 and over
8000 visitors participated in the two-day 2012 Festival. This year will be even bigger and better!
www.realfoodfestival.com.au
celebrate@realfoodfestival.com.au
Business Opportunity
We’re offering a great opportunity to expose your business to an enthusiastic market:
o Expose your products through ‘Sell & Sample’
o Launch new products and services
o Conduct valuable market research
o Build brand awareness
o Showcase your passion and expertise
o Make new customers
o Develop new and strengthen existing business relationships
o Network with like-minded people
o Create publicity and media opportunities
o Grow your business in an environment that is all about celebrating what you do best!
Support your region and help put it on the map as a ‘must-visit destination’ for foodies and those looking for
a great weekend away.
Festival Promotion Campaign
We actively target families, singles and couples interested in good, clean and fair food. We’re also
promoting the event, and the region, to those looking for a great weekend experience.
The Real Food Festival is extensively promoted throughout south-east Queensland and interstate including:
 Website event listings with links to our site
 Email newsletters and blogs
 Social media via Facebook and Twitter
 Flyers handed out at through Sunshine Coast IGA stores, markets and key locations
 Posters and flyers located in tourist and information offices, shops, restaurants, cafes, educational
establishments, libraries, accommodation establishments etc
 Stories and regular press releases sent to newspapers throughout south-east Queensland and beyond
 Competitions with accommodation, restaurant dinners and ticket giveaways in newspapers, magazines,
websites, radio throughout south-east Queensland
 National media coverage
In 2012 we secured coverage in Jetstar’s inflight magazine and KiaOra, Air New Zealand’s inflight magazine,
as well as date claimers in a number of quarterly and monthly national magazines. The Real Food Festival
was extensively covered in the Sunshine Coast Daily and Hinterland Times, and was featured on ABC Coast
FM, who broadcast from the Festival on Saturday. We also achieved coverage in a number of newspapers
and magazines published throughout south-east Queensland and nationally.
You can download a list of last year’s stallholders and a copy of our 2012 Post-Festival Report from our
website www.realfoodfestival.com.au.
The 2013 Festival will again be promoted through a comprehensive, strategic marketing campaign that will
expand our reach into interstate markets and exploit the media interest stimulated by the last two years’
events. All our publicity activities drive readers/listeners to the Real Food Festival website and we
encourage you to link from your website.
We’d love you to ‘like’ our Facebook page: facebook.com/RealFoodFestival and follow us on Twitter:
twitter.com/realfoodfestiva. Please contact admin@realfoodfestival.com.au for logo and event listing
information.
www.realfoodfestival.com.au
celebrate@realfoodfestival.com.au
Here’s what people said about the 2012 Real Food Festival…
“What a gorgeous location to have a food festival, showcasing the Hinterland producers of the
Sunshine Coast! The promotions set in place certainly brought the crowds in, well done guys! See
you next year.”
Judy Scrase – Hello Honey
“The Real Food Festival brought our target market together in one place - lovers of gourmet, local
food.”
“Being part of this year's Real Food Festival was a very valuable exercise for us as the new
owners of Maleny Cuisine. It was great to receive feedback on our products and it was an excellent
way of promoting our products and getting our brand recognised by more people. We will most
definitely be back next year!”
“There was a great variety of different foods from so many local suppliers which I was really
surprised at. Purchasing was made so easy because once you had tried it "you wanted it to take
home". A fantastic day, so well organised. Thank you for the show bag it was great to carry all
my purchases home.”
“If you only ever attend one expo in your life. it should be The Real Food Festival!
The talks,
demos, information, food & fun are the best! And the entry price for all of this is fantastic! I
would love to see 2013 over 3 days instead of 2, so I could soak up more knowledge, info, products
& great food!!! I had an awesome weekend & was there from start to finish both days. Thank
You.”
Shaz E, Sippy Downs, Queensland
How you can be involved
There are many ways to get involved in the Real Food Festival and be part of this amazing event for your
business and the Sunshine Coast region.
Below are some suggestions that you can mix and match to suit your business or organisation’s needs. We
have plenty of opportunities for everyone to take part but some special spaces are limited and will go quickly.
Please note that only businesses and organisations that actively sign up will be promoted and acknowledged
as being part of the Real Food Festival.
Become a sponsor of the 2013 Real Food Festival………...…
download a Sponsor Package
Book a stall for the Festival weekend of 7 - 8 September……
download an Exhibitor Package
Advertise your activity/event on our website…………………..
download an Advertiser Package
Promote your accommodation house, restaurant, café
or other complementary business on our website……..……
download an Advertiser Package
www.realfoodfestival.com.au
celebrate@realfoodfestival.com.au