Today at 9 AM PST the Feast 2016 schedule is going live. Then tomorrow, May 20 2016 at 9 AM the website will start selling tickets for the various food and drink events that make up the best food festival in the Northwest. This year, Feast 2016 is scheduled for Thursday September 15th – Sunday 18th, 2016. I would consider myself a huge Feast fan and supporter. I’ve even shared my tips for attending Feast from my previous experiences in the past few years. This time, here are my tips on getting yourself ready for the Feast 2016 Tickets Sale based on the past several years where I have purchased tickets for a couple events.
Use Multiple Browser Tabs and Calendar the Events
When shopping through the possible events, I like to open tabs for each event on the Feast schedule, and arrange them chronologically Thursday – Sunday. Some of the events will after all be on the same day, and even conflict with each other. I close the tabs for events I don’t want to attend, so I’m left with the ones I have interest in.
Then, I use Google Calendar to set up a calendar hit for each event. I do this to see how long each event is because sometimes I will go to multiple the same day, and seeing them on the calendar helps me see where there is overlap or travel / digestion time and make the hard decisions if some conflict. Inside each event I copy and paste the URL for that specific event page so I can easily get to it – any events I decide against I can easily delete from the calendar later.
Remember the Cost Is More Than Food
Keep in mind that when you see the prices of the events, that it is inclusive of food and drink. Some of the chefs are traveling from other cities so it’s saving you the money of having to travel to experience that food there – and in many cases, you will get to meet that chef. There will be names you recognize. In previous Feasts, I got to exchange words with Hugh Acheson, Aaron Franklin, Mei Lin. I had one last chance to eat food from Homaru Cantu in 2014, and try for the first time some of the unique creations from Dominique Crenn. I took a picture with Ruth Reichl, and Tom Douglas, Stephanie Izard, and Michael Voltaggio.
And, the entire four days is for an important cause as Feast’s mission is to fight hunger in Oregon, so Feast festival net proceeds go towards ending childhood hunger through Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon and Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry.
Research Chefs or Events
If you are wondering about what kind of specific experiences in terms of eat and drink some of these events offer, I’ve covered several years of Feast events on the blog before that you can browse to read through. This varies from recapping marquee events like Night Market 2015, Brunch Village 2015, Brunch Village 2014, and Sandwich Invitational 2014 and the Sandwich Invitational in 2013. There’s plenty of recaps of other awesome events like Smoked and dinners series events and hands on classes you should also search and read to get your FOMO in gear…
Note that this year the Night Market is switching up themes from an Asian night market to Latin – should be fun!
If you’re looking for an overview of what it’s like to attend the Oregon Bounty Grand Tasting on Friday or Saturday, I covered it in 2014 and also in 2013. I didn’t write a specific post, but you can find photos I took from the Oregon Bounty in 2015 and also Drink Tank Events 2015 here.
Make sure you read through the names of the chefs participating in an event for favorites. I’ve also sometimes searched the names of chefs if I wasn’t familiar with them already (generally chefs from another city) to see what kind of food viewpoint they represent since it’s an opportunity to meet them and try their food without the cost of traveling to that city! For instance, at Brunch Village in 2014 was when I first learned the name Alvin Cailin, and as soon as I saw he owned something called Egg Slut I knew he’d be among my top few booths I’d visit right away, and I’m thrilled he’ll be back this year to Feast for 2016! I mean, look at his brunch offering from last time…
Coordinate With Friends / Go Alone
Browse and talk among those you care about which events you are interested in and want to purchase tickets, and give them a specific deadline of when you want to hear back from them and it needs to be a definite yes or no. Feast isn’t until September, so hopefully it’s just confirming there isn’t a wedding or vacation during that time. If you are mainly looking at the marquee events, since those number many hundreds of guests you will have longer to coordinate since they have a larger number of tickets available. The smaller events obviously have less tickets, so can sell within the day, or hours, sometimes even minutes. Events do and will sell out.
I believe it’s easier to have a specific person be in charge of buying the tickets for the small events (specifically dinner series and hands on events) and then decide how you will exchange money/tickets afterward. Obviously pick the one who will be most responsible AND is sure to be free at 9 AM in case some of the events sell out quickly. I know I’m in charge already of tickets for the Japanese dinner. If there are multiple events, consider have different people in charge of each event purchase.
Once the ticket is confirmed tomorrow, send the calendar invite to your dining companions so that you already have on your calendar so it is definitely blocked and won’t be forgotten or double booked later a few months from now!
Alternatively, just buy the ticket for yourself and worry about coordinating later! Everyone at these events is extremely friendly and loves food and drink – and it is easy to start a conversation with strangers about what they have enjoyed so far at the event. Being at Feast is sort of like being able to talk to anyone and everyone rooting for your same sports team at a game – but here the game is FOOD.
Prioritize Deciding on the Smaller Events
You have less than 24 hours before the tickets go on sale. Some of them will sell quickly. The fastest thing to sell out are the dinner series events and the smaller events like “fun size events”. These are both smaller affairs then the big marquee events, so that is the first thing you should look at and discuss which one(s) you want to splurge on. Last year, I jumped immediately at the chance to not have to wait hours in line in Austin to get Aaron Franklin’s BBQ and see the legend himself. Last year that sold out in 15 minutes or so and let me emphasize it’s totally worth it. You can see my recap of the Aaron Franklin Stumptown Coffee Cookout event from Feast 2015 here.
The year before I was a little classier attending a modernist cuisine dinner with a star studded list of chefs for a State of the Art dinner. These are more towards the fine dining than the casual small events, and you could even dress up for them.
Buy Tickets in Priority Order Event by Event, Small Ones First
I set up a calendar reminder 15 minutes before 9 AM on Friday to prepare to buy the tickets, and I have it blocked so I don’t have anyone setting up a meeting during that time – I’ll even go hide in a conference room. No one is going to interrupt me or get in my way.
I do not buy all my events at once. I immediately purchase each small event immediately. I don’t want to spend time filling up my entire shopping cart and then checking out – so I will check out multiple times.
Multiple tabs are also your friend here – I have them queued up and ready at 9 AM for each event!
I also figure by being prepared to check out as soon as the sales start, and with multiple tabs to try, I have better chances of completing everything before the site traffic gets slammed with everyone else.
At least, the above is what has worked for me.
What events are you looking at attending?
Disclosure: I was granted a Blogger Pass for Feast Portland 2013-5 for blog post and social media coverage but I am not otherwise being compensated. I also purchased my own Feast event tickets each year for additional events. I will always provide my honest opinion and assessment of all products and experiences I may be given. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own
