Gin makers toast success of Yum! Festival
The crowds at the 2018 Yum! Festival of Food and Drink.
A YUM! Festival regular set his stall out alongside a newcomer to the event as crowds flocked to the annual celebration of the finest food and drink.
Jon Collins, owner of Cocoa Chocolatier and Bakery in Humber Street, exhibited at the very first festival with a previous business and was back again at the weekend with an array of chocolates, brownies and other treats which have made his shop in Humber Street a symbol of sweet success.
His verdict was that Yum! 2018 was better than ever as the annual gathering of foodies was swelled by the expansion of the festival over three days and by the added attraction of the Absolutely Cultured dominoes event. He also revealed that he is now planning further investment to target more festivals.
Jon said: “It’s been really busy with quite a few more people than we saw last year. We’ve seen a lot of new stalls and new faces and there’s much more variety than in previous years.
“I’ve been here every year and it’s a big event for us, along with the Hull Street Food Nights and the Hull Trinity Farmers’ Market. It’s something we want to do more of so we’ve just bought a bespoke van which will enable us to go to out-of-town events as well.”
Emma Kinton of Hotham’s Gin School and Distillery, said their team was busy all weekend with fellow co-founder Simon Pownall running between the Yum! stall and the premises in Hepworth’s Arcade, Hull, to top-up supplies of hand-crafted gin.
Emma said: “We only opened a month ago so this was our first time at Yum! and business there was really good. We had to re-stock several times and we took the opportunity to let people know where we are and what we do.
“We put a lot of effort into getting to know people, starting with our neighbours in the Arcade because we wanted to make it clear to them that we are not running a bar – we’re making gin and helping our customers make it as well. It was our neighbours who put us in touch with HullBID and getting involved has been fantastic for our business.”
Kathryn Shillito, HullBID City Centre Manager, said the response from the public and the 80-plus businesses present justified the decision to expand Yum! over three days to accommodate the increasing number of businesses eager to take part and to showcase more of the food and drink being produced and consumed in and around Hull.
Kathryn said: “The Yum! Festival is hugely popular in its own right and with so much more going on including the dominoes and the HullBID Beauty Box event it made sense for us to spread things over three days rather than try to cram everything into two days. We’re currently looking at the figures but estimate around 30,000 visitors attended.
“The feedback after our eighth annual event has again been very positive from all involved. Many of the vendors reported that they had to re-stock several times a day after selling out. Jon’s experience is evidence of the longer-term benefits of Yum! and our other fantastic food events – on the strength of his success he’s now growing his business.
“Hotham’s Gin School and Distillery are an example of a small business starting out and they were really upbeat. Not only did they sell a lot of gin but they also raised awareness of their unique, fun business and I have every confidence that they’ll do well.”
Future dates for Hull Trinity Farmers’ Market are Saturday 25 August and Saturday 29 September. Each event will take place from 11am until 4pm. The final Hull Street Food Night of 2018 will take place in Zebedee’s Yard and Princes Dock Street on Thursday 6 September from 4pm until 9pm. The Beauty Box will return to the city centre on Saturday 8 September from 11am until 4pm.
