Cross Sectional Analysis of Food Festivals in Canadas Three Largest Cities

Shahzaib Khan

Culture, Creativity, and Cities Capstone Course | Dept. of Sociology | University of

Toronto Scarborough
1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Ontario M1C 1A4 Canada
Abstract
From our research on food festival in the three largest
cities in Canada we found that Toronto have the highest total
number of food festivals with 34, Vancouver was second with
14 and a close third was Montreal with 10. Once the number of
food festivals was determined per city our next finding was
how many of the food festivals were restaurant collaborations.
Toronto had 5 restaurant collaboration festivals, Vancouver 4
and Montreal with 2. When looking at admission cost,
entertainment and governmental aid Torontos food festivals
ranked highest on our charts. [Refer to Table 1]. Vancouver
was ranked number one in ethnic themed food festivals but
second in the three remaining categories. Finally Montreal was
last in all four categories that were tested [Refer to Table 1].
Key words
Food Festivals, Restaurant Collaborations (b-team),
Admission, Entertainment, Ethnic Themed, Governmental Aid
Introduction
Food festivals have slowly become a staple in every major
city in North America. Many cities host annual food festivals
showcasing specific cultures that have historically called the
city home or about the latest and most trendy foods, diets and
lifestyles out there. In our findings Toronto, Montreal and
Vancouver are not any different and they each follow a trend
of showing the cities cultural heritage, and displaying what is
trending at the moment. Through exploring and categorizing
each citys own food festivals some common themes emerged.
The first theme that emerged was some food festivals were not
held in one location, rather they were collaborations with
various restaurants within each city. Once the restaurant
collaborations were established and documented in each city,
other common findings started to emerge. Admission cost,
entertainment, ethnic theme and governmental aid were also
looked at for each of the three cities.
Background
The book town model of Beth Driscoll discusses how
book towns connect themselves to their distinctive city by
make reading part of the cities culture while maintaining a
connection to a broad network of other book towns and using
all of this to leverage itself into a tourist attraction within the
country. The same ideology can be applied food festivals in
each city that want to increase their attendance each year they
After the b-team festivals were identified and marked in
each city some common themes were examined and
Culture, Creativity, and Cities Capstone Course | Dept. of Sociology | University of
Toronto Scarborough
1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Ontario M1C 1A4 Canada
may use their connections to present themselves as must visit
tourist attractions within the city. For example in Toronto the
Taste of the Danforth festival will attempt to connect itself
and reach out to all Greek immigrants in Canada and North
America making it a must visit for anyone interested or
attached to Greet culture.
Combining Graeme Evans and Jennifer Lena regarding
city branding and the importance of location it is evident that
some food festivals may apply one technique more then the
other or combine several in an attempt to better attract visitors.
For example in both Toronto and Montreal they host an annual
poutine week focused solely on showcasing different varieties
of poutine available at restaurants across both cities. As
poutine is a staple Canadian junk food to brand and base a
whole food festival on it is smart as it appeals to a large
audience of anyone who has ever eaten poutine. By branding
the entire food festival on a commonly known food item is a
good way to attract people to come and experience the
different variations of it.
For location Jennifer Lena talks about how moving a
music festival from outside of the city to within the Nashville
city limits the music festival was able to attract more people to
come and use the city and location to garnish more sponsors.
In Vancouver the Shipyards Night Market was able to use its
distinct location away from the main cluster of food festivals
in Vancouver to market itself as a must visit attraction. The
Shipyards Night Market with both Evans and Lenas
theories on branding and location to make itself a distinct must
visit tourist attraction that uses its location as a branding
strategy to attract visitors and it has been doing so
successfully.
Methods
The initial step to studying food festivals was to determine
which cities would be examined and why. The three largest
cities in Canada were chosen after research was conducted on
each city showing that within Canada as a whole these three
cities had the highest number of food festivals. Once the cities
were selected the total number of food festivals were tallied
per city. The next step was determining which food festivals in
each city were held at one location and abided by the
traditional thinking of being food festivals while others were
collaborations with various restaurants throughout the city also
known as b-team festivals.
Vancouver is the next best option with the second most
food festivals and is second in all criteria measured except the
researched on for each food festival. The common themes
explored were which food festivals charged an admission fee,
which was viewed as a barrier of entry, which food festivals
had entertainment as part of the festival in the form of music
playing or performances. Whether or not the food festival was
based on a specific culture or ethnicity was also noted and
examined. Finally the funding that the festival received was
looked at and if it was from companies or from the city in
which the festival was being held. These themes were then
examined and placed in a chart and given a score of 1 to 3 for
each city and then the final scores of each category in the three
cities was totaled and a placed in another final table.
Findings
From all the research conducted and all the variables
measured regarding food festivals in Canadas three largest
cities a table was made to display the final results. The first
finding was that Toronto had the most food festivals of all
three cities with 34 food festivals. Vancouver was second with
14 food festivals and Montreal was a close third with 10 food
festivals. When it came to restaurant collaborations or the b-
team percent in each city Vancouver had the highest percent
having 4 b-team festivals out of 14 total festivals or 28.5%.
Montreal was second having 2 b-team festivals out of its 10
total festivals or 20% and lastly Toronto had 5 b-teams from its
34 total food festivals or 14.7%.
When it came to the other themes examined and the scores
administered it was about which city had the highest number
of food festivals meeting the specified criteria gaining the most
points 3, the second most 2 and the least 1-point. For no
admission cost, entertainment at the festival and funding aid
from the city government Toronto had the highest scores with
respective percentages being 56%, 74% and 29%. Vancouver
had the highest score when it came to the number of culturally
based or ethnic themed festivals with 29%. Finally Montreal
came last in every category examined and had the lowest
overall score. For the final scores please refer to Table 1.
Conclusion and Recommendation
In sum, the findings collected through the research and
background information indicated that the best city to visit if
interested in food festivals is Toronto. It had most food
festivals overall, the least that have an entrance fee, the most
with entertainment, and had the most with funding and support
from its city government. If ethnic food festivals are the goal
Toronto is still superior to Vancouver when it comes to total
number of food festivals that are based on a specific ethnicity
or culture.
Culture, Creativity, and Cities Capstone Course | Dept. of Sociology | University of
Toronto Scarborough
1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Ontario M1C 1A4 Canada
percentage of ethnic themed or culturally based food festivals.
Toronto by the numbers had more when it comes to the
number but Vancouver had a higher percentage of its food
festivals that are ethnic themed or representing a culture.
Montreal had the lowest score of all the three cites when
looking at the themes researched. Montreal also had the lowest
amount of food festivals overall of the three cities and it had
the fewest b-team festivals.
A recommendation would be for Vancouver and Montreal
to follow the theme of Toronto and increase its total number of
food festivals. That is easier said then done but for a first step
both cities could get in contact with their respective city
governments and ask for better funding and a cooperative
marketing strategy. One other suggestion would be for all three
cities to connect with one another as was explained in Beth
Driscolls examination of book towns and make a few
common food festivals that have a specific attraction exclusive
to each city and market those food festivals in each city in an
attempt to send locals from one city to another to visit and
explore the various food festivals that are not found in their
city. One piece of research that could be examined in the
future could be the number of attendees at each food festival
that are from the local population, out of province, out of
country and whether or not it is the attendees first time
attending the food festival or they have been before. This data
could indicate which food festivals people favour and which
are more successful at attracting visitors than others helping to
improve the ones that are not as successful.
Citations
1. Driscoll, B. (2016). Local places and cultural distinction:
The booktown model. European Journal of Cultural Studies,
1-17. doi: 10.1177/1367549416656856
2. Evans, G. (2003). Hard-branding the cultural city from
Prado to Prada. International Journal of Urban and Regional
Research, 27(2), 417-440. doi:10.1111/1468-2427.00455
3. Hull, G. (2016). Cultural Branding, Geographic Source
Indicators and Commodification. Theory, Culture &
Society, 33(2), 125-145. doi:10.1177/0263276415583140
4. Lena, J. C. (2011). Tradition and transformation at the Fan
Fair festival. In Negotiating Values in the Creative
Industries (pp. 224-248). Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Culture, Creativity, and Cities Capstone Course | Dept. of Sociology | University of
Toronto Scarborough
1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Ontario M1C 1A4 Canada