*Drumroll*

Sorry I'm camera shy.

The stage oooh purple..














People


















More people..



















Happy times.


















Thai booze booth

THE BEER FESTIVAL ASIA 09!

Chosen Event:

The Beer Festival Asia is my selected festival for my field trip project. The Beer fest, a yearly event which takes place at different counties happened to have held in Singapore this year, 2009, offers exotic and unusual brews from all parts of the world, over 100 kinds of beers from as low as 3 dollars was available at the main festival. The festival was located at a area facing Marina Barrage, just behind the Singapore Flyer. It was held from the 29^th of April to the 3^rd of May 09.

Comparison of the selected festival with a similar festival that has been successful in another city in terms of its marketing strategy:

I’ll be comparing The Beer Festival Asia to the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival. The Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival is Canada’s premier wine event. Wines from different regions of the world were available. The Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival had Italy being the regional theme, and sparkling wine was the focus of it. It had tasting glasses for 5dollars. Everything was offered as a cheaper price, alike to the Beer Festival. The Wine Festival had some competitions as well, it was to promote excellence in the wine and food industry. It is the biggest and oldest wine festival of its type in the world. And it certainly is the best compared to the ones in New York, Monterey, Colorado and Europe this festival’s has topped all of them. They had a wine and appetizer challenge, sommelier of the year, spirited industry professional and a wine award list. The only competition at the beer fest was a arm wrestling competition, competitors were segregated by weight categories. The competitions held might have been part of the events’ marketing strategies, to attract more participants. The Beer and Wine Festival’s names tells everything about the product they featured, the Beer Festival featured beer as its product, and as for they Wine Festival, they had wine and food. Service was also one of the other products that both festivals provided. No doubt that the quality of the product was excellent, as it is essential. The place where the Beer Festival was held was an area facing Marina Barrage in Singapore, just behind the Singapore Flyer, it had a very laid back atmosphere and a more casual setting. The destination featured a view of the world’s largest Observation Wheel, the Singapore Flyer, and a look at the new recently reclaimed Marina Barrage. And as for the Wine Festival it was headquartered at the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre, 999 Canada Place. The International Festival Tastings, most Trade Days events and public wine seminars were held at VCEC. Other events were held at Vancouver’s top restaurants and hotels. The atmosphere of the event was also laid back, however it had a more formal and upper class setting. There were not as many destination features at the wine fest, not that I know of. The Beer Festival had a lot of advertisement prior to it’s debut, it had a great destination and image. I had no trouble finding out that a Beer Festival was going to be held, there were advertisements on television, the train, busses, taxis etc. The advertisements sort of made an impact on me that the event was going to be epic. The Beer Festival had various companies involved with producing the event, it included Citibank, Absolute Vodka, TimeOut Singapore For Him Magazine Singapore, Power98FM, HungryGoWhere, Timbre Music, B-YOND D.A.S, NLX Event Services, CSP Productions, BMC Music Centre, LOWE Refrigeration, Hartrodt Group, Bio-Air, Singapore Exhibition and Convention Bureau and the Australian Trade Commission. These companies played a part for the advertisement, production and the launch of the festival.

As much as both festivals were International Events, the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival had more sponsors and stakeholders and partnership companies.

Next we’ll move on to the festival programmes. The Beer Festival had live band performances and arm wrestling competitions, whereas the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival had winery dinners at some of the world’s finest restaurants, formal wine tastings, seminars and food and wine businesses.

The people who were present at the Beer Festival were either tourists, locals or the employees and the hosts of the festival, the Beer Festival wasn’t as crowded as I expected it to be, maybe because I went only on the last day of the event. The only people who stood out and caught my attention were some of the vodka girls, they were giving out samples of different kinds of beers, it was awesome. I spotted many youths and young adults as well. Well Comparing this to the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival, I believe the people who were present was alike to the Beer Festival, except that probably there wasn’t as much youths or young adults at the scene, and most of the people attending the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival were more matured, in terms of age.

The Pricing of the tickets at the Beer Festival was that early bird tickets cost $20, at-the-door tickets sold for $35 for a 1 day entry. There was also a exclusive price for SAFRA members, senior citizens and tertiary students, they had their tickets available at $10. There were also packages made. The hospitality packages included a ride on the Singapore flyer, a Beer runner (One of the hot vodka girls), a $20 food and beer voucher, and a reserved seat within the main marquee, the package cost $78, Compared to the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival, it’s event prices ranged from $29 to $400. Early bird rates end on January 15 (February 16 for the Bacchanalia Gala). Ticket prices were inclusive of GST and service charges (and gratuities for lunches and dinners in restaurants).

The Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival also had their own packages, a hotel package and a trade day package. Prices were not disclosed.

The Beer Festival sold their beers using coupons, which could be purchased with money.

The intermediaries of both the festivals were listed above, at the Stakeholders and Sponsors section. On a whole, the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival was a more epic and grand event than the Beer Festival, and I believe the main purpose of the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival was slightly different from the Beer Festival’s.

Best Practices:

There were some practices that were carried out by the organisers, that I felt was worth mentioning, first of all as much as there was only 1 competition, an arm wrestling competition, there were other activities, there was billiard, foosball, hockey and last but not least, pinball machines. Next there was sufficient security staff monitoring the vicinity, and a security specialist squad, security was definitely not a problem, at an international event like this, security is of the utmost importance. They also brought in bands that were not so recognized over here at Singapore, I felt it was great listening to them, I have never been exposed to the genre that was being played by them before, and I believe it was an eye-opener to most locals.

The Stakeholders:

The main stakeholder in the Beer Festival would be Singapore Tourism Board. STB was responsible for the preparation and launch of the festival. Following up would be Singapore, Singapore’s government and the local people. Other stakeholders included Citibank, Absolute Vodka, TimeOut Singapore For Him Magazine Singapore, Power98FM, HungryGoWhere, Timbre Music, B-YOND D.A.S, NLX Event Services, CSP Productions, BMC Music Centre, LOWE Refrigeration, Hartrodt Group, Bio-Air, Singapore Exhibition and Convention Bureau and the Australian Trade Commission. These companies played a part for the advertisement, production and the launch of the festival.

Main Purpose Of The Beer Festival Asia:

I felt that the main purpose of this festival was to bring people from different parts of the world together to sample different beers from all over, experience what the host country has to offer and at the same time to help promote and help certain beers get recognition and perhaps to bring in different types of beers into Singapore. It might also have been a ‘trading’ event. I felt that it was more of a social event though, especially with the music and since booze was the core product of the event.

The amount of tourism benefits received by the host city of the chosen event:

The host city of the chosen event, in this case that would be Singapore, Beer Festival Asia 09, would have received much tourism benefits, businessmen would be coming down to attend the festivals, much less tourists, it would mean them spending money during their stay here, and increasing the revenue the host city receives, and with more tourists, it might also help improve or rather change Singapore’s image, for Singapore might have been stereotyped as a more conservative Asian country. The host city might have also put in extra effort into maintaining the city.