Kāpiti Food Fair opened for registration on 15 April and already 100+ sites have been snapped up by familiar and new vendors wishing to be at the Fair. “There is a lot going on behind the scenes in preparation for the Fair that will take place on the Kāpiti Coast on Saturday 4 December,” said Helene Judge, Co-owner of the Kāpiti Food Fair.

Helene goes on to say, “2020 was a challenging and exhausting year with so much uncertainty with COVID Alert Levels. We can operate at Alert Level 1 using the Event Sector Voluntary Code and we were super fortunate to receive $25,000 from the Domestic Events Fund to help delivery including juggling various issues.”

We contended with undesirable weather, a grass fire that closed SH1 lanes at Mana, trains being replaced by buses and Transmission Gully implementing significant lane changes at Paekakariki that impacted North and South bound traffic flow. Six weeks before the Fair we also became aware of another event taking place in Wellington, Downtown Shake Down.

“This meant reduced visitors however, their spending was high along with their survey ratings which saw 8.7:1 return on investment when the numbers were crunched by Kāpiti Coast District Council using the Infometrics Economic Analysis Tool for Events,” shared Helene.

“The reality of slightly lower attendance was less gate entry income and a financial loss overall that has been covered by the COVD small business loan,” says Jeanine van Kradenburg, Co-owner of the Kāpiti Food Fair.

Before launching vendor registration, we took a good look at our position in the market before landing our site schedule with four new fees that include a levy for waste, licencing and health & safety which are significant costs to absorb. “We are confident our prices are aligned, or a little below the likes of the Newtown Festival, Thorndon Fair, Martinborough Fair, Cross Hills Fair etc,” said Jeanine.

In 221 we are wanting 35% of vendors to be from Kāpiti so we can continue with our 2020 campaign to promote #lovelocal and #lovekapiti. Last year we had ‘love local Kāpiti Coast’ rosettes made to showcase local vendors and we gave them our own jute shopping bags to give away to some of their first customers.

We have a total of 250 sites at the Fair – to secure yours, head over to or website to book by telling us all about your business and what you intend to do on the site. We review all bookings before confirming and sending an invoice for your site fee.

“Curation is important as we don’t want excessive replication and to achieve a good balance of ready to eat and packaged sites for visitors to enjoy all day long. Attendance is usually 20,000+ engaged visitors with 98% of them having an amazing or good experience at the Fair, and many of them spending up to $200 or more,” shared Jeanine.

For more vendor and visitor info >> https://kapitifoodfair.co.nz/vendors/vendor-%26-visitor-facts

• Packaged Single 3m²: $155 + $15 levy = $170
• Ready to Eat Single 3m²: $155 + $35 levy = $190
• Packaged Double 6m x 3m: $310 + $15 levy = $325
• Ready to Eat Double 6m x 3m: $310 + $35 levy = $345

Book your vendor site >> https://kapitifoodfair.co.nz/Book-Vendor-Site

Another area of focus has been the need to attract sustainable sponsorship partnerships. “The good news is hard work pays off as we have achieved our target of $45,000 which is a relief as it costs minimum $150,000 each year to run the Fair,” says Helene. Keep a look-out for sponsor announcements very soon.

About:

The Kāpiti Food Fair was established in 2008 from humble beginnings, to become the major community event it is known for in the Wellington Region today. Privately owned and operated by Helene Judge and Jeanine van Kradenburg, their mission is to bring visitors into Kāpiti for an immersive experience on the Kāpiti Coast – all while having a fun, tasty day out with GOOD friends, GOOD times and GOOD food!

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