Cafe Fest Singapore 2014 -- where Great Stories are Told ...

When I chanced upon an ad on Facebook on this inaugural Cafe Festival in Singapore many weeks ago, I was really excited.  The concept of  visiting a cafe hopping street  sounds so interesting.  I remembered showing the BF the link and  after reading the FAQ, I did notice that the organizers  mentioned on the site that the  event is open to all but only the  festival pass holders can purchase F&B from the participant cafes.  Being a coffee lover, I would definitely need to make  F&B purchases if I am going to attend.  At that point of time, it already occurred to me that  there seems to be a loophole that  by opening the event to all, the system can be exploited  by having one person paying for a pass to get the F&B at festive rates. 
You must be wondering , why bother to but passed when the even is open to public?  
This is because on the website , the organiser, TELL GREAT LITTLE STORIES (TGLS) indicated that all cafes will conduct checks to ensure all are passholders and they will also conduct their own checks to ensure that those in the main seating areas are passholders only.  With  also the promises of a free $20 Uber credits for free rides on festive days and goodie bags valued at $60 -$100 each, we thought it would be worth attending the exclusive event ,

 Screenshots from the website




Due to our hectic schedule, we forgot to buy the passes during the early bird promotion and the VIP  passes were also sold out. We, or rather the BF has paid $50 to get the 2 regular passes.  

The event took place on 6 Sep and ended on 7 Sep.  We only attended the first day and felt that it is rather poorly planned.  Over hyped , I would day.   So much efforts was sent on marketing the  event  yet  it was poorly  planned .   I am sure by now most would have read from the news and social  media about the backlash the organisers received  on the first day of the event.  I have organised events  (though not on this scale)  and know how difficult it is running one, but i have to say this is rather a disaster and  really felt that the organizers have not been  truthful to the public.  No wonder someone said they really live up  to their name of telling  great stories.

Why I consider the event is a disaster:

1. Uber Credits
 Till today, the BF did not receive any email on the Uber credits, It did not matters to us then as he will be driving that day.  Saw from the comments that many of the passholders cant even get a ride using the Uber credits.

2 Lack of Signage/instructions
It was only indicated that the venue is at Waterfront Promenade.  No map shown. I actually used Google map to  check out the place and it cannot be found in Singapore. If not for the Garfield Run, I would not have guessed where exactly the  festival was held from the pic shown their Facebook page.  Pity those who spend hours trying to find the venue.

3 The  event ended up not exclusive to pass-holders 
 The passholders only found out that the event is open to all and the cafes allows the public to purchases the F&B items only at the event. The organizers only commented through the  Facebook  at the end of the day that " it is our mistake for not communicating to the consumers clearly that the event was made open to the public” ­– a decision made “halfway” through the preparation of the event".    Oh, why did they not indicate the change in the policy on  their website and yet they were still selling last minute Festive Passes  two days before the event when they know it will be open to the public.  Why did they not get the helpers to inform us about this arrangement at the point of registration? We have to find out the truth ourselves when we saw the public queuing for food and drinks.

4 Useless goodie bags not worth as much as they have claimed

Picture shown here show the contents of the goodie bag. Basically just pamphlets , a map of the Cafe Fest and a small notebook. Can you justify why it is value at $60?!!!

5. Limited selection of food,
The event is supposed to last till 7pm. At 2pm, we saw most of the food items sold out and by 5pm, more than 5 participating cafes has packed up for the day.

6. Little Discount for pass-holders
The discount for the pass-holders is only $1,  By opening the event to the public, that means a pass-holder need to buy  at least 25 items  to get back his/her  money worth, compare to those who did not event spent a single cent to get the passes.   Really don't see the value in doing that too.

7. Lack of seats and small tentage.
Lookng at the tent age, I really feel sorry for those who forked out more $ to get the VIP passes.  It was so small that it could barely fill 50 people.  No checks done by the organizers to ensure that those people seated there are all pass-holders.

8. Lack of sincerity

Though the organizers admit at the end of their first day that it was their oversight and they are working on some sort of compensation. as they put it , "for those who might not come for the 2nd day of the event, they have to write in to them.   This only appeared as a  comment on their facebook page. There isn't any post on their Facebook page or on their website  on this matter.


Ok enough said about them. Here's some pics of the event,


Some of the participating cafes.

Tt's a  super sunny day.Long queues at each stalls and not crowd control.  There/s no priority queues for the VIP holders as promised.




(to be continued)