bringing drinks to life

To be honest I hadn’t given Bar10 (or London Bar Show as it is more popularly known) a lot of thought this year. I had rather assumed that it was business as usual. I had heard they had moved back to the Business Design Centre in Islington, the smaller venue where Bar began it’s life, but other than that I assumed that not much would be different.

 

 

Then out of nowhere I saw a few threads on facebook with outraged bartenders complaining about the ticket price… ticket price?… that can’t be right! Bar has always been a free to attend event.

 

 

Sure enough the organisers of Bar10 have made the decision to charge an entry fee for the first time, and it seems that in doing so they have ruffled a lot of feathers! There are two price points, £25 for admission to the show and a further £60 if you want to be involved in the Cocktail Summit. My first reaction to seeing this was to join in the rant about this being outrageous, but taking a moment to think about it I realised that there are two sides to the story, so in this blog I will be presenting both sides as well as offering a few of my own thoughts as I go along.

 

 

As I looked further into this debate I asked for input from my friends and contacts in the trade and it became obvious very quickly that the decision to charge is not a popular one.  Everyone from Bartenders to Brand Managers jumped into the debate and it soon became clear that no one was about to come out in favour of the idea. This got me to thinking about whether it was the sum of money that was the problem or the way in which it has been communicated.

 

 

But before I get onto that perhaps we should have a look at what Bar10 is actually offering the trade this year. There are two aspects to the event, the Bar10 show, which is in essence a fairly standard trade show format, with brands and suppliers paying for a stand to present their products to visitors. Then there is the London Cocktail Summit, a series of round-table discussions, seminars and experiments aimed at helping to educate visitors and drive our industry forward.

 

 

The actual Bar10 show is nothing new, they have been running a similar event for the past 11 years and the UK bar scene has come to know roughly what to expect. The only difference is that this year they want to charge £25 for visitors to access the show. The London Cocktail Summit however is a great addition to the show with a real chance to learn from and interact with some of the leading lights of our industry. It builds on the success of last year’s seminars at Bar09 taking them forward and allowing them to become a valuable learning experience for bartenders of all levels. In fact it is exactly what the UK bar scene has been lacking in my opinion… but just how valuable is it? £60 worth of valuable?

 

 

In talking to the organisers of Bar10 it became clear that they made a decision this year to try to elevate the standard of their show. Feedback they received from exhibitors and attendees of last years show indicated that too many people were treating the event as a way to get a few free drinks and little more. Suzie Ager, one of the organisers, offered these thoughts on their decision to charge an entry fee for the first time.

 

“Our exhibitors have stressed that they are looking for quality rather than quantity of visitors and over the year’s visitor levels have grown to an unmanageable level.

 

The Bar Show is a commercial enterprise and whilst we do indeed charge exhibitors to participate, the current climate means we have to look for additional revenue streams in order for the event to be financially viable.

 

We have also struggled over the years with visitors who attend the show for the wrong reasons, i.e. free drinks. We have tried and failed on many occasions to ensure all visitors are attending the show for professional reasons and our regular visitors are fully aware of how unpleasant the show gets later on in the afternoons. Our last resort is to cost the trouble makers out of the show hence the entrance charge.”

 

 

I completely understand the commercial aspect of this undertaking and the fact that the big brands no longer spend money on stands at these events the way they used to. This is what’s behind the downscaling of the show element and does go some way to explaining one of the reasons for charging. However as Barnaby Rodgers, Brand Manager for Appleton’s Rum pointed out,

 

 

 

 

And from the feedback I have had from bartenders Barnaby might very well be right about them staying away from the show. There is undoubtedly a need to discourage people from thinking of Bar10 as just an excuse for a free p*ss up, and to start treating it as a serious trade event, but it seems that the ticket price is not just putting off young barbacks and blaggers, it is also having the same effect on career bartenders, bar managers, consultants and brand ambassadors. Below are just a few of the comments we have received from people who make up exactly the sort of audience Bar10 are gunning for:

 

Ozzi Fanghanel – Raoul’s Oxford

“£60 for a cocktail summit is ridiculous. They seem to have forgotten we are but lowly bartenders working in one of the most underpaid industries in the country. As has already been said, I think those of us serious about bartending would rather spend the cash on a good bottle of booze or some books.”

 

 

 

 

 

Charging people to attend a bar show is not a new idea, Tales of the Cocktail have done it for years now, Berlin and Amsterdam charge as does Sydney, so why the public outrage at paying £25 to get into Bar10? Part of the issue is undoubtedly the way that people have found out. When you log on to ‘register’ for an event that has been free for the past 10 years it comes as a bit of a shock to see a £25 price tag attached to the tickets. But perhaps more importantly there is the fear from those in the ontrade, that when you look at the exhibitor list, that the return for your ticket price will not be good value.

 

 

The general feedback from bartenders over the last 3 years has been that the quality of exhibitors at Bar Show has been in decline with more energy drinks, EPOS systems, chair designers and electric cigarettes than spirits on show. With this decline in standards the perceived value of this show is pretty low to many in the trade. As such the idea of being charged to see a smaller version of the same show is pretty off putting.

 

 

Bar10 are trying to elevate the status of their show and make sure that their audience is made up of ‘the right’ people; charging an entry fee is definitely one way of doing this, but is perhaps equally off-putting to the core audience they are trying to attract. Also what you get for your money has to be good or people will not return for bar11.

 

 

In the UK bartenders are not paid well and as such £25 or £85 (depending on how involved you want to get) is a lot of money, and it seems that there is a feeling that the benefit might not reflect this financial investment. That being said, for years now people have been saying that the Bar Show needs to raise it’s game, and it is trying to do just that.

 

 

Personally I would love to be involved with the London Cocktail Summit but can’t really justify the expense. I am torn between wanting to see if this event is worth £85 or putting my hard earned cash to good use elsewhere. Having talked to Andy Bishop, who is the event director for Bar10 he acknowledged that the decision to charge was a risky one but as he pointed out to us, something had to change to move the bar show forward. Will his choice to charge prove the right one? I guess the only way to know is to check it out first hand.

 

 

Andy also very kindly offered bitters&twisted blog readers a chance to come down to Bar10 and experience both the show and the summit for free. He has given us 10 tickets worth £85 each, to give away, and all you need to do is sign up for our newsletter here is.gd/ct27t  to be entered for your chance to win! Those of you already signed up will be automatically entered! Winners will be announced on Tuesday the 8^th of June so sign up now for your chance to experience the new look Bar10 and London Cocktail Summit! If you win tickets or decide to buy them for yourself we’d love to hear what you think of the show and whether you consider it value for money or not.

 

 

What this whole debate highlights to me is that from the bar back to the brand ambassador, the people within our industry feel passionately about seeing it evolve in a way that keeps the UK at the cutting edge; and that when it looks like a major player is going against popular opinion, you’re not the types to keep quiet about it, I like that a lot!