Speciality & Fine Food Fair adds experiential features and visitor vetting

This year’s Speciality & Fine Food Fair is now open for registration, promising new features for its 25th anniversary edition.

Taking place on Tuesday 10 – Wednesday 11 September 2024 at Olympia London, the fair will introduce several elements and changes aimed at enhancing the event’s value for attendees in the speciality food and drink sector.

New additions for 2024 include the Wine Cellar, a dedicated section for visitors to explore and discover quality wines from around the world. This area will showcase a curated selection of fine wines for wine buyers.

Plus, new tasting stations will provide a sampling opportunity for visitors to taste and experience a variety of speciality food and drink products. This addition aims to enhance the interactive and sensory experience of the fair.

The Drinks Uncovered stage has also been added to the line-up, presenting a range of experts discussing the latest trends in the drinks industry. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn from leading professionals and gain insights into emerging trends and innovations shaping the future of drinks, from hot drinks and soft drinks to alcohol and low & no.

In addition, the fair will include an event to celebrate 25 ‘Rising Stars’ in the UK food and drink sector. Rising Stars highlights up-and-coming foodie founders and entrepreneurs in the early stages of their product journey, showcasing the next generation of talent in the food and drink industry.

For this edition, organiser Montgomery Group has changed the fair’s registration and attendance policy, introducing visitor registration approval with the aim of attracting the event’s intended audience of food and drink buyers and producers.

Retailers, hospitality professionals, food and drink buyers, food and drink producers will continue to have free entry, but suppliers to food and drink producers will be subject to vetting and unable to attend the event free of charge and will now be required to pay a £350 fee (+ VAT) and provide credentials showing a connection to the food and drink sector.

Nicola Woods, event manager for the Speciality & Fine Food Fair, said: “It’s important to us, as we celebrate our 25th year, that we do everything we can to ensure the fair attracts the right audience and that we enable buyers and producers to connect, do business and gain value from the event. While suppliers to food and drink brands are an important part of the industry ecosystem, we have to focus on facilitating invaluable new connections between buyers and speciality producers. That is the heart of the fair.”

The 2024 event will include returning features such as the Start-Up Village, which showcases new brands in food and drink, the Talking Trends stage, where visitors can keep up to date with all the latest trends and topics and hear from inspiring industry leaders, and the Speciality & Fine Food Fair Awards, which this year are introducing a new DEI Initiative category to recognise the work being done by businesses across the industry to improve their diversity, equality and inclusion.