Feedback on Fire Festival

We understand the different opinions regarding stall placement. Unfortunately, we don’t have one area large enough to accommodate every vendor while also having space for entertainment, bar setups and more.

Over the past few events, we’ve tried many different layouts, each with its own pros and cons. As our events continue to grow, we plan to welcome even more vendors, making this an ongoing balancing act.

While we would love to accommodate every recommendation and stall request, vendor opinions on layouts are often very mixed. For this specific event, while a few vendors suggested changes for future festivals, many more specifically complimented the layout.

We’ll continue refining our approach with the goal of maximising visitor flow and exposure for everyone, while balancing the many logistical considerations involved.

The card payment issues experienced on the day appeared to be a wider network/Yoco issue rather than a venue issue. We already invest in additional connectivity solutions and will continue exploring ways to improve this where possible.

We always aim to communicate as much information as possible before each event. Due to the size of our markets, it’s unfortunately not feasible to provide every vendor with detailed information about their exact placement, surrounding vendors, photos of their allocated space and other location-specific details ahead of time.

We’ve trialled this approach in the past, but found that layouts often need to change right up until event day.

We’ll continue looking for ways to improve communication while keeping our planning process practical and flexible.

The natural layout of the farm means some areas may appear quieter at certain times. We do our best to encourage guests to explore the entire venue and will continue refining the flow at future events.

We carefully balance food vendors to offer visitors a good variety while also ensuring each vendor has the opportunity to trade successfully. Adding more vendors isn’t always better, as it can reduce sales across the board.

We’d love to feature every vendor before each event, but as a small team this isn’t always possible. We encourage vendors to tag us in their posts so we can share them, and we’ll continue exploring better ways to showcase everyone.

With over 70 vendors, announcing every stall during the event becomes difficult and can take away from the entertainment experience. We do, however, appreciate the suggestion.

We loved the suggestion of takeaway meals for vendors and will consider and discuss a potential pre-order system with delivery to stalls at future events.

We always strive for a diverse mix of vendors. Some overlap is unavoidable, while categories like coffee require multiple vendors to keep up with visitor demand.

We always try to accommodate requests, but due to the logistics involved this isn’t always possible. Going forward, we’ll prioritise requests where they’re necessary for the product (for example, items that need shade).

As Rosemary Hill is also a busy wedding venue, we can’t always schedule events around month-end. Despite this, many vendors reported some of their best market sales to-date at the Fire Festival.

We can’t accurately predict visitor numbers beforehand, as online ticket sales close the evening before the event and many guests purchase tickets at the gate. We will do our best to keep everyone up-to-date on bookings in the days leading up to the next event.