Sibling sisters launching Soweto Food Festival

Hot on the heels of Soweto Wine Festival, Soweto Beer Festival and Soweto Festival, two sisters (Refiloe and Mavis Mataboge) have teamed up to introduce another event in the famous township by launching the Soweto Food Festival. After browsing through their website I quizzed them on their initiative…

1. What is Soweto Food Festival and what inspired the concept?

• A food festival is the coming together of people to celebrate food in all its flavours – local and international.  It’s a gathering to recognise and uphold talent, to taste different foods, to socialize, to learn, to share in the ritual of food and the role it plays in our lives and to enjoy the festivities that surround food.
• We have often asked ourselves – what makes people go back to Soweto?  It’s the food.  It’s the vibe.  It is about the connection between people, food, places and events.  Soweto is such a colourful place – full of life and nobody is telling the food story – we recognized an opportunity.  We want people to share in the food of the township.  We also recognize that many people in the township may not get the opportunity to taste the foods of the world, at the Soweto Food Festival they can.

2. Who are your main sponsors?

• As part of including more info on the website we are going to upload this info.  We are making all the changes at once so hence the slight delay in including some of the basic info

3. How many exhibitors have you confirmed, out of the 50 stalls on offer?

• 50% of the stands have been sold to date.  This number will be updated as more people buy stands

4. Why have you gone for four days, instead of one day as a start and build from that?

• Financially it makes sense to do four days.

5. What will be the entry fee?

• R35 for adults. R10 for pensioners and kids under 12 years.  Tickets available at the gate
• This includes a goodie bag with tokens which can be exchanged for food samples and tastings.  The tokens should be sufficient to allow one to taste a variety of foods on offer.  More tokens will be on sale if one would like more food and/or beverage samples.  There will also be a retail area where full portions of preferred and sampled dishes can be bought.  The food retail zone will also offer visitors an opportunity to purchase food products used at the festival.

6. What marketing have you done thus far to spread the world about your new baby?

• At the moment, our communication efforts are focused on getting the message out to the trade i.e. key players in the food/ beverages sector and tourism sector.  In due course we will roll-out a communication campaign for the general public.

7. I say your website www.sowetofoodfestival.co.za sucks (no images about food etc), nothing convinces any potential exhibitor or visitor to trust this initiative…what is your reply?

• We say we love your honesty!
• The version of the website that you see now serves as basic framework.  The aim is to make as interactive as possible and to update it frequently

8. Is there room for interested parties to get involved with sponsorship or mentorship?

• Absolutely!  Is there anything specific that you would like to offer?

9. What major help do you still require to ensure everything runs smoothly on the day of the event?

• There is still a lot to do. This is really a massive initiative so there are a lot of things that still need to be ticked off on list. We have really amazing partners who are working so hard to make sure that everything is ready on the day of the festival.  However, if there is anything specific that you would like to offer, you’re most welcomed.

10. Do you have any relationship with the organizers of Soweto Wine Festival and Soweto Beer Festival?

• We have talked to the organizers of the Soweto Wine Festival.  In fact, they were in our launch and they were really excited about this initiative.
• If you have the contact details of the organizers of the Soweto Beer Festival, can you kindly forward them to us.

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