Baking at a festival: a day in the life of our mobile bakery

July 18, 2012

Photo (L-R): The Hummingbird Bakery’s Laura, Marcel and Kate all have flour power

Baguettes, bubble guns and baking – it’s all in a day’s work for our mobile bakery team as they keep the festival crowds in cupcakes.

Prepping our mobile bakery for a festival takes more than just tasty bakes. We need a dedicated troupe of helpers willing to brave tons of tents and masses of mud to bake in the early hours of the morning and serve up treats to weary revellers right through til the evening. Festival baking is a full time gig!

We find out from Hummingbird Bakery team member Kate what it’s like to work a festival in our travelling bakery…

 

So Kate, what needs doing before a big festival event?

Lots needs prepping before we can get on the road. All the ingredients are put into our onboard storage and walk-in fridges so that we are ready to bake on arrival. We check we have enough tea, coffee and drinks to see us through the weekend. As we can fit everything we need in the van, it’s not possible to over-pack, so we go ready for anything! We also have a lengthy debate about which DVD to watch in the car on the way there – previous pre-festival entertainment includes Shark Tale and Madagascar 2.

 

How do you bring some of the festival spirit to the mobile bakery?

I like to crank up the iPod when I’m getting ready in the morning – it helps to wake me up! Bacon baguettes are also handy if we have a 6am start. There’s also a bubble gun, which blows bubbles out into the crowd. Simone, one of our bakers, is generally in charge of bubbles when she’s not busy baking.

 

Are you a keen camper?

I’m pretty up for camping and don’t really mind the outdoors, unless it starts raining loads. But you’d be crazy not to take some earplugs – festivals never sleep!

 

What’s the best thing about working a festival?

Mealtimes are a nice chance to eat with the team – everyone makes dinner and chills out together in the staff gazebo. It’s all quite civilised for a festival!  We sometimes get to catch some of the music too. A few highlights for me have been seeing Bat for Lashes at Latitude and Pearl Jam at the Isle of Wight Festival. We also got to go on the big wheel which was fun.

 

Tell us something we didn’t know about the mobile bakery.

None of our cupcakes are kept overnight, so if there’s leftovers at the end of the day we sometimes take the trays out into the crowd and hand out free cupcakes.

 

Kate’s top tips for festivals:

Earplugs

Extra socks

Bikini and flip flops for the showers

 

Posted in: Events

Tagged with: Baking, Cupcakes, Festivals, Mobile Bakery, Mobile Unit