29/06/2026
IT’S TIME WE TOOK BACK CONTROL OF OUR INDUSTRY.
Read this before you scroll, because if you’re a mobile caterer, trader, or street food vendor, this affects you.
We all made the same decision at some point.
We walked away from secure jobs.
We risked everything.
We invested tens of thousands into trailers, vans, equipment, stock and infrastructure.
We spent years perfecting recipes, building menus, learning our craft and creating businesses from nothing.
We missed birthdays.
We sacrificed weekends.
Our kids spent summers in the back of vans because we were out earning a living. Family holidays became festival fields. We worked while everyone else enjoyed the sunshine.
But it was worth it.
At the end of the season there was enough left to give our families a great Christmas, pay the bills, maybe take a few months off over winter and actually enjoy being self-employed.
Now look where we are.
Some organisers, promoters and management companies have turned this industry into a cash machine… for themselves.
They’re squeezing the very businesses that make their events possible.
Think about one simple can of pop.
They sell it to us at around £20 a case plus VAT.
Then they insist we use their card machines and take 35% + VAT from every transaction.
Then we pay VAT again on our sales.
Every step of the way, someone is taking another slice.
Then they decide when we get paid.
They protect their cash flow while we’re expected to pay staff, buy stock, fuel vans, cover accommodation, insurance, maintenance, licences, prep costs and everything else upfront.
And somehow we’re supposed to be grateful for the opportunity?
We’re signing contracts that strip away more and more control every year.
At what point are we no longer self-employed?
When over half our turnover disappears before we’ve even paid ourselves?
When someone else controls what we sell, how we sell it, what equipment we use, what commission we pay and when we receive our own money?
Without traders…
There are no food courts.
No queues.
No atmosphere.
No event.
We’ve accepted these terms for too long because we thought we had no choice.
Maybe that’s exactly what they want us to believe.
If enough of us start saying “No”, things change.
But if we keep signing the same contracts and accepting worse terms every season…
…don’t be surprised when there are no independent traders left.
Stop undercutting each other.
Stop accepting anything just to get on an event.
Start standing together.
Because if we don’t fight for this industry now, there won’t be much left to fight for.
