Digital Food Safety System
Save time, reduce hassle and keep your business inspection-ready.
A collection of resources to help you with all things related to working in events & festivals.
Trading at events and festivals can be one of the most rewarding ways to grow a food business, but it comes with its own unique challenges too.
Whether you’re applying for your first event or looking to make your season more profitable, you’ll find practical guides, tools and resources to help. From choosing the right events and preparing your paperwork to improving your applications and avoiding costly mistakes, everything here is designed to help you trade with confidence.
For more than 30 years, we’ve supported event caterers, organisers and the wider events industry, helping thousands of businesses succeed at festivals, shows and outdoor events across the UK.
The NCASS Outdoor & Festival Catering Guide
Get event-ready with our Outdoor Event & Festival Catering Guide – packed with essential advice on food safety, allergens, LPG and electrical safety, risk assessments, compliance checks and more.
Designed for outdoor caterers and event operators, this practical guide includes key legal guidance, operational tips and a handy on-site checklist to help you stay safe, compliant and prepared all season long.
Download your free guide today.
Applying for Events
Applying for events and festivals is one of the most important skills for any event caterer. Whether you’re pitching for a village fête or a major music festival, success comes down to good preparation, thorough research and clear communication with organisers. This guide walks you through the process.
The Golden Rules – Tendering for Events
One of the biggest problems faced by event caterers over the years has been the rise in pitch fees for events. This is usually due to tendering processes which, if not thought out properly, tend to favour the organiser and push up costs for caterers, often to a level that can make it difficult to turn a profit.
Working Safely at Events & Festivals
Events and festivals are highly regulated, and when you add food safety requirements there’s plenty of paperwork to stay on top of.
Event Trading Paperwork
Most events and festivals will ask you to provide evidence that your business can trade safely and legally. Typical requirements include:
- Insurance
- Health & Safety Risk Assessment
- Food Safety Risk Assessment
- Fire Safety Risk Assessment
- Site-Specific RAMS
- Allergen Matrix
- Equipment safety documentation, including PAT testing and LPG certification
- Environmental Statement
You should also have procedures in place to protect your team, including guidance on working outdoors, noise exposure and working at height.
What NCASS members have ready before they trade.
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Safety Management System
A physical folder covering Food Safety, H&S and Fire Safety, with Compliance Manual, risk assessments and Daily Diary. What most members take to events.
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Digital Food Safety System
Prefer paperless? Replace your daily records with the app. Works on any device, even offline — ideal for events with patchy signal.
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Online Risk Assessment Tools
H&S, Food Safety, Fire Safety and LPG risk assessments, ready to submit with any event application.
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Send Company Documents
Store and share all your business documents with an organiser or EHO at the click of a button.
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Primary Authority Protection
Your paperwork is recognised by Environmental Health teams and event organisers across the UK.
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Training discounts
Staff turnover is part of events life. Members save significantly on food hygiene, allergen, LPG and fire safety courses.
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Work opportunities to your phone
SMS alerts for events, festivals and private hire near you, filtered by postcode and food type.
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Dedicated Support
A real person who knows your business, on hand when you need something sorted fast.
Plus – your membership pays for itself.
Up to £200 in Booker vouchers, discounted insurance and 30+ partner deals mean most members more than cover their costs.
★★★★★
“We have been a member with NCASS for over 15 years and it has been a massive incentive when it comes to keeping all our required documents together. The new digital SMS system is amazing when out on the road.”
Richard Brant · Scrumpy Pig
FREE Inspection Checklist
Download our free inspection checklist and hygiene guide to see exactly what Environmental Health Officers look for. Learn how inspections are scored, avoid common pitfalls and give yourself the best chance of achieving a 5 hygiene rating.
Download our free Inspection Checklist Visit the Inspection Hub
What our members say about trading at events
“There’s an unwritten rule that pitch fees shouldn’t exceed about 10% of expected takings, but many large festivals ignore that. For a small business, that’s a big risk. Local events, pubs, and markets often make far more sense.”
Truly Torta
“If one market, festival or event says no, just keep going, apply for a hundred and one will say yes. That’s honestly been my biggest mindset shift: keep showing up, keep learning, and trust that the right opportunities always come your way.”
Little Miss Delhi
“You have to be proactive, don’t sit back and hope work finds you. Get out there, knock on doors, network, follow up, and look for opportunities others haven’t spotted yet. Define the kind of work that suits your business, then chase it.”
Crocus Paella
“Start small with local pubs where costs are low. Use the opportunity to find out what you want to do before making big decisions. It’s a low-risk scenario to work out your menus, see what people like, and streamline what you want to do before going into bigger events.”
Let’s Go Street Food
Our Event Partners
To give our members true value, we’re partnered with top suppliers in the catering and hospitality industry. From discounts to cashback and expert support, explore our event partners below or check out our full range of partner suppliers.
The UK’s leading events platform built for caterers.
Real leads matched to your availability – and total control over who you quote and when. Get 75 free credits to quote on your first 10+ events.
The workforce management app built by a caterer, for caterers. Schedule shifts, track hours, and export payroll from one app.
As an NCASS member, you get 2 months free to try TimeCatch.
The market leaders in supplying gas cylinder delivery solutions for all major outdoor events, festivals and businesses.
New NCASS members receive 10% off their first 3 orders.
With over 20 years experience, their pop-up gazebos are used by caterers up & down the country.
Receive a 10% discount as an NCASS member.
Less queues and happier customers with Dojo’s portable payment solutions.
80% faster than the industry average and minimum contracts starting from 1 month.
When travelling to events, markets, or daily pitches, having reliable roadside support can make all the difference.
NCASS members receive a 60% discount on AA breakdown cover.
LPG Safety for Caterers
LPG safety is one of the most serious responsibilities you have as a mobile caterer. Unsafe practices put your customers, your staff and yourself at risk.
NCASS provides resources, a training course and a network of approved gas engineers across the UK to help you stay safe and compliant. We also have a partnership with Calor Gas — if you buy cylinders regularly, you could be earning cashback.
Find a Gas Engineer
Find an Engineer now
LPG Gas Safety Training
Find out more
Gas Safety Hub
Discover now
Earn cashback with Calor
Start earning cashbackLPG Safety for Event Organisers
How confident are you in identifying potential safety hazards or illegal practices in mobile traders’ LPG setups? Do you have the right knowledge to ensure the safety of your events and your audiences when it comes to LPG?
NCASS has leveraged their expertise in mobile LPG and mobile catering to create a specialised training course and workshop designed for event organisers, EHOs and outdoor, event & festival traders, entitled, ‘The Safe Use of LPG in Mobile and Outside Catering’.
This course is invaluable and provides essential guidelines for anyone using or evaluating the suitability and safety of LPG setups. It equips event teams with the knowledge to identify unsafe LPG practices and understand the crucial safety controls that should be in place.
It is unique because it has been put together by leading industry experts and offers real-life examples of unsafe illegal LPG practices. NCASS is encouraging all outdoor traders, event professionals and environmental health professionals to complete it.
LPG Safety for EHOs
NCASS and EHOs share the same goal: safe, well-run food businesses. We’ve trained hundreds of EHO specialists across the UK on mobile LPG safety, and we’ve developed a dedicated training package for Environmental Health Professionals — drawing on our expertise in mobile LPG and the street food sector.
Learn more about how working with NCASS can be a mutually beneficial relationship.
How we work with EHOs
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