Guide · Festival catering logistics · UK
The cooking is the easy part. How festival and event caterers build a working kitchen in an empty field: power, water, gas safety and leaving no trace.
Most festival catering problems are not about the food. The cooking is usually the easy part; it is the power, the water, the access and the timing that go wrong. Behind the burger van at a summer festival sits a logistics operation that has to conjure a working commercial kitchen in an empty field, feed a captive crowd through sharp peaks, and leave no trace when the weekend ends. Get the logistics right and the food looks effortless. Get them wrong and the queues, not the menu, are what people remember.
A single mobile unit serves only a few hundred covers a session, so a large event is never one caterer. Organisers build a roster: one or two high-capacity anchor caterers for volume and reliability, specialist street-food traders for variety and character, and single-line concessions for fast crowd-pleasers. The art is a curated mix rather than a row of identical burger vans. Anchor caterers underpin the capacity and take the logistical weight, while the smaller traders bring the diversity that spreads dietary coverage across the crowd, so vegans, coeliacs and everyone else find something at peak time rather than joining one overloaded queue.
The logistics
Self-sufficiency is the price of entry. Many festival sites are off-grid, so an experienced trader brings their own power, whether generators or increasingly solar and battery, along with fresh water and a waste and greywater plan. The single biggest mistake is a trader assuming the site provides these; a good caterer asks about power, water, ground conditions and access timings before the organiser does.
Gas is the sharpest safety edge. Most units run on LPG, and the rules are specific: propane cylinders belong in a separate, ventilated, fire-resistant compartment accessed from outside the vehicle, fixed upright and secured, ideally on an automatic changeover so a reserve cylinder takes over cleanly. Every gas installation should be checked and certified by a Gas Safe registered engineer before trading. Barbecues and open grills need screening so the public cannot be burned, and spare cylinders and basic repair kit travel with the unit because a breakdown in a field with no backup means a lost day's trade.
Paperwork travels with the van. Traders register with their home local authority, carry public liability insurance, and must be able to show a written food safety management system, usually HACCP-based, to the council covering the event. The person in charge is generally trained to Level 3 in food safety and the team to Level 2, and food handlers wear the distinctive blue detectable plasters for a reason.
Compliance on the move
Allergen duty does not relax in a field. The same rules that bind a fixed kitchen apply to a trailer: information for the fourteen major allergens must be available, and anything prepacked for direct sale carries a full ingredient label under Natasha's Law. Bodies like NCASS, the Nationwide Caterers Association, exist partly to help mobile traders keep that compliance straight across dozens of different sites and councils in a single summer. The commercial model matters just as much as the compliance: pitch fees, power charges and a tight, high-throughput menu decide whether an event pays, which is why the discipline of making event and banqueting catering actually pay is a skill in its own right, quite separate from cooking well.
Still a commercial kitchen
A burger van or a festival trailer is still a commercial kitchen, and it still builds grease. Fryers and flat-top grills throw fat into the canopy and any extraction the unit carries, and in a cramped, hot trailer that residue is a real fire risk sitting right next to LPG. Because a mobile unit is essentially a compact, high-intensity kitchen, the principles of setting up and running a compliant pop-up kitchen apply directly, extraction and grease control included. Cleaning canopies, filters and any ductwork between events keeps the fire load down, keeps the unit passing inspection wherever it trades, and protects the insurance that a trader cannot work without. In a temporary structure, where escape is harder and help is further away, that margin of safety matters more, not less.
Questions
The logistics, not the food. Off-grid power, water, waste, ground access and timing are where events go wrong. Experienced traders arrive self-sufficient with their own power and water, and confirm the practical details in writing before the day.
Most units run on LPG. Propane cylinders should sit in a separate, ventilated, fire-resistant compartment accessed from outside, fixed upright and secured, ideally with automatic changeover, and the installation should be checked and certified by a Gas Safe registered engineer.
Typically the person in charge holds Level 3 food safety and the team hold Level 2. Traders also register with their home local authority, carry public liability insurance, and must show a written HACCP-based food safety management system to the council covering the event.
Yes. Information for the fourteen major allergens must be available, and anything prepacked for direct sale needs a full ingredient label under Natasha's Law, exactly as in a fixed kitchen.
Yes. Fryers and grills load the canopy and any ductwork with grease, which is a fire risk sitting next to the gas in a cramped unit. Cleaning between events keeps the fire load down and the unit inspection-ready wherever it trades.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
A trailer is a compact commercial kitchen with grease right next to the gas. We clean mobile and pop-up extraction between events so your unit stays safe and inspection-ready.