By Inside Biz
The Standard Bank Luju Food & Lifestyle Festival invites suitable candidates to apply to trade in the festival’s Culinary, Fashion, and children’s Beehive spaces.
The festival will take place at House On Fire, in the scenic Malkerns Valley, from Friday 4th to Saturday 5th August 2023, showcasing some of the finest Eswatini and the region have to offer in food, music, fashion, design, beauty, entertainment, culinary exploits, premium wine and whiskey showcases, craft beverages and much more.
Different pockets of the festival, called Hives, offer opportunities for unique experiences, such as pop-up food stations that support drink pairing, tastings, and specialized demonstrations by renowned chefs and connoisseurs.
Trader applications opened today (12th June) and will close on the 3rd of July 2023. The application process is all online.
Links to the application forms can also be found on the Luju Festival website, lujufestival.com, as well as Luju Festival and House On Fire social media platforms.
Themes
The Culinary and Fashion hives have their own themes supporting the Luju ethos of ‘A Return to the African Future’, with its signature African Vintage style.
The Culinary programme theme is ‘Culinary Art’. Hives include a beer garden, premium lounge, wine saloon, taste of Africa, cocktail lounge and a global tastes court.
Vendors are encouraged to serve dishes that are unique, visually attractive and consistently tasty. An understanding of gastronomy and experience in food trading is essential.
The Fashion Hive theme is ‘African Fashion Folktales’, celebrating the transformative power of fashion. Craft mastery and sustainable materials become mediums for the reclaiming of ancestral stories, interweaving tales of our past and future.
From individual expression to the collective consciousness, fashion has the power to shift and shape future generations.
Trading opportunities are available in the following spaces:
Luju Food Garden
The Luju Food Garden is the pulse of the festival. It welcomes specialty vendors that offer a delectable range of authentic culturally diverse flavours.
Food vendors are carefully selected based on high-quality food standards, strong visual aesthetics, and experiential customer service.
Luju Fashion Café Marketplace
The Luju Fashion Café will be showcasing the best of Eswatini Design, Beauty, and Fashion over four platforms: the Design Exhibition, Fashion Café, Marketplace (beauty, accessories, jewellery, fashion, homeware), and Fashion Show on the Luju & Dala Spaces Runway.
Luju Bee Hive
The kids-oriented Luju Bee Hive welcomes vendors looking to provide exciting and engaging entertainment and food for children of all ages. Theme-related activities and games are preferred.
Marketing Activations
Marketing Activations welcome concepts from brands looking to advertise in an engaging and interactive stall space, to increase visibility and reach across the region. Various packages are available upon request.
Awards will be given to some of the best-designed, appropriately themed, and most interactive exhibitors.
Worth noting is that the Standard Bank Luju Food & Lifestyle Festival is a 100% cashless environment, using NFC chips on festival wristbands for transactions.
Luju is committed to being an eco-friendly event and all traders are required to use eco-friendly packaging.