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White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group, Kansas City, MO, USA

Growing popularity of food festivals

Agritourism crop-based food festivals are growing in popularity. Our company's 2023 agritourism participation survey found that at least one household member from nearly half of all U.S. households (47%) attended at least one food festival on a farm in 2023. Strawberry festivals were the most popular, with participation from one-quarter of households (25%). Surprisingly, overall participation in food festivals is greater than in traditional fall festivals with corn mazes and pumpkin patches. Food is becoming a major draw, the anchor attraction for many agritourism events (also see this month's article on pizza farms (www.whitehutchinson.com/ news/ agrinews/ 2024/ july/ article105.shtml#article) ).

Google search history shows an upward trend in popularity of farm food festivals starting around 2016.

Nearly three-quarters of adults now identify as foodies, more so than other interests.

Food-based festivals are where young adults are most willing to leave their comfort zones and try new or variations of traditional foods. In their 2024 report, Eventbrite found that 70% of eventgoers like experimenting and trying new flavors and foods. It's not that difficult to incorporate crop flavors into familiar, classic foods such as hamburgers, BBQ sauces, baked goods, ice cream, and familiar drinks.

Here are the themed foods that one farm offered at their blueberry festival.

• Blueberry lavender lemonade
• Blueberry donuts
• Blueberry ice cream
• Blueberry cheesecake ice cream
• Blueberry cobbler with ice cream
• Blueberry slushie with blueberries
• Blueberry cider frozen slushie
• Blueberry hard-cider frozen slushie
• Blueberry jam smashburger (with peanut butter & bacon)
• Blueberry BBQ sauce for BBQ
• Grilled cheese with blueberry jam & cream cheese

Food & drink-themed events allow you to expand the season beyond fall with minimal capital investment.

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