Waitrose scales up its November festival at Tobacco Dock with We Are Collider

The Waitrose Winter Food and Drink Festival is returning between 18 and 20 November 2022, with a scaled-up offer in a new home – London’s Tobacco Dock – that features inspirational new experiences while hosting over 500 products from 150 suppliers and showcasing the best of Waitrose’s own festive food ranges.

Waitrose’s experience agency – We Are Collider – was charged with evolving the festival into a broader, more creative and experiential event; while also adding food into the mix and dialling up Waitrose’s presence at the event.

To transform the festival into more of an immersive experience, We Are Collider expanded seasonal theming and conceived a broad range of engaging pop-ups such as a Kitchen Disco.

The festival additionally hosts an apres-ski themed VIP lounge, a champagne bar, a Christmas market where visitors can sample and buy Waitrose festive fare, wreath making and table-scaping workshops, an intimate tasting room for hands-on masterclasses and an opportunity to ‘Meet the Expert’ (including Waitrose’s own Cookery School) in the demonstration kitchen.

The new iteration of Waitrose’s Winter festival now integrates food and drinks brands alongside Waitrose’s own label products. Waitrose’s ownership of the event has been amplified by promoting the brand’s own festive food and drink ranges and services through deeper integration of more Waitrose experiences.

We Are Collider was responsible for securing the venue, all creative development and spatial planning as well as production and co-ordination of all 150 supplier exhibitors, each with their own branded stands.

This latest festival is the second activation We Are Collider has delivered for Waitrose, after creating the brand’s 2022 Summer Festival activations: a two-storey reusable structure, including a tasting kitchen, BBQ theatre and drinks terrace, that toured four festivals: Cambridge Club, Love Supreme, Cornbury and Standon Calling. The brand – agency team are shortlisted for award recognition at next week’s FMBE Awards. 

Emeli Waldron, Waitrose’s Events, Experiences Development and Delivery Manager, said: “After such a successful summer festival campaign, we knew the Winter Food & Drink Festival would be in safe hands with We Are Collider. Their behavioural approach and alignment to our brand purpose has injected a human element into the expanded event. This has elevated the festival to a more immersive Waitrose experience, which I am sure our customers are going to love.”

Tracy Sorgiovanni, We Are Collider’s Operations Director, added: “Meeting the high expectations of both seasoned exhibitors and the regular visitors was a hefty responsibility in light of transitioning the festival to a new format and a much bigger, more complex and more aesthetic venue. But the newly expanded and more immersive event now puts Waitrose well and truly on the food and drink festival map.”