This is the first year that ETTB has catered for the production team and artists at Bestival, but the island was familiar territory for Anne Crawford, ETTB’s team leader, who said: “The Isle of Wight is a great place to source local ingredients, from meat, the world champion Isle of Wight Blue cheese, to sweetcorn straight from the farm adjacent to the festival. Fresh ingredients make for tastier food and a reduced carbon footprint for the catering operation.
 
“There has been a great atmosphere on site at Bestival and this is a beautiful island to work on. The beauty comes with the price that precise planning and logistics are needed to get our kitchen equipment and 11 staff on to the island, which is where the company’s vast experience providing event catering on this scale was invaluable.”

DJ Rob da Bank started Bestival six years ago, with just 2,000 people on site. This 6th Bestival attracted a capacity audience of 45,000, with production management undertaken by Loudsound, who’s Festival Director Jim King commented: “Having Eat To The Beat join our team for the first time has been very popular with everyone; they have done a great job.”

ETTB celebrated its 25th anniversary this year and proved that it still has what it takes to ‘rock out’ this summer with its biggest festival season ever. The company catered for 12 festivals, providing 284 crew on sites for 199 days, serving a massive 91,733 meals!

The season started on June 2 at Download moving onto Latitude, Love Box, Madstock, Rewind, Big Chill, Hyde Park, Glastonbury, Leeds, Reading and for the first time V-Festival in Chelmsford, finishing with Bestival.

In addition to the UK scene ETTB have also been busy across the pond with an in-house catering residency at the Merriweather Post Pavilion and providing its services at All Points West and Virgin Freefest.

ETTB’s Operations Director Mary Shelley-Smith said: “This has been a great season. We really enjoyed doing Bestival and are proud to support the community by purchasing as much as possible from local sources, including supporting a charity by using the Wight Crystal mineral water, bottled in (neighbouring town) Newport.

“Now that the festival season is over we are far from having a relaxing winter. We still have a huge amount of other tours on the go with music, TV and comedy shows doing the rounds, not to mention that we have just started a 50 week Cirque Du Soleil tour around Europe.”