A big shout out to all the amazing food traders that kept your bellies fuelled at Shambala this year! Our annual Inspirational Trader Awards celebrate the hard work of the incredible food traders who go above and beyond in all aspects of their trade. Working alongside our sustainability team, our food traders have to meet strict standards and jump through all manner of sustainability hoops, covering everything from energy efficiency to ethical food procurement and travel miles. We’re forever grateful that they smash it out the park every time.
A little additional note: Coming out of the back of the pandemic, this year has been exceptionally difficult for festival traders across the industry; keeping their beloved businesses afloat throughout the ‘wilderness years’, fighting inflation and trying to keep costs affordable and food standards high. With that in mind, a huge round of applause to every single one of our Food Traders for powering through and making it work.
Due to the various difficulties facing traders this year, we did face some last minute drop outs which meant that we didn’t have as many traders as intended, despite our best efforts to scramble and replace them on the fly. The knock on effect of this was some pretty hefty queues at peak times – not ideal and not the experience we want you lot to have. We’ll be increasing the number of traders in 2023 accordingly to ensure this doesn’t happen again, and ensure you lot can get your fix of delicious vegetarian dancing-fuel in a more timely fashion.
So… without further ado here are your winners for Shambala 2022!
Inspirational Trader Award – Once in a Blue Moon Café
Our Inspirational Trader Award goes to the trader who makes outstanding efforts to create positive social and environmental change and who inspires their customers to take positive action! Seeing so many traders with inspirational ethics, who go the extra mile in their efforts to enact positive change is humbling – pair this with the diverse range of delicious food, with flavours from all over the world and judging a winner becomes a tricky task!
Once in a Blue Moon Café provided a vibrant and cosy chill out space, and prioritised social and environmental action, and developing meaningful relationships with their producers and growers, alongside their delicious offerings. They bring affordable meals to the table, with a focus on organic, seasonal, plastic packaging free veg from local and independent suppliers. A huge shout out to Patrick and the team from Once in a Blue Moon!
It was a close call for the number one spot, and we want to say a big hats off to the runner up for 2022 – The Jolly Trolly. After joining us later in the game, they absolutely nailed operating and inspirational culture across their whole business. Well done to Natasha and the whole team!
Sustainable Trader Award: Energy Efficiency – The Crumble Shack
Energy efficiency is a key factor in reducing our overall impact as a festival and helping to foster a better world! At Shambala, our drive is not only to choose sustainable options where we can, but for us to measure and understand power consumption as a whole. Our Sustainable Trader Award for Energy Efficency is to celebrate the traders who really get on board with our efforts to minimise the overall power consumption of Shambala. The award goes to a returning trader who achieved the largest overall reduction in kWhs used on site in 2022 in comparison to their 2019 readings.
The Crumble Shack saved a whopping 125.1kWh in 2022! To put into this number into perspective, 125.1kWh is the equivalent of another efficient stall’s entire event power use – so the team at The Crumble Shack have absolutely blown us away with this reduction! Well done to Samantha and the whole team, we adored your delicious, satisfying and energy efficient crumbly puds.
The People’s Choice Trader Award – Dosa Deli
You lot just can’t get enough of these crispy golden dosas, and bhajis as big as your head – neither can we! Dosa Deli were voted number one by you in this year’s post-event ‘Big Debate’ for their incredible selection of affordable, but nutritious dishes, winning them the title of The People’s Choice Trader Award 2022!
A big well done to the team at Dosa Deli, who not only impressed Shambalans, but also secured themselves the number one spot in our Golden Carrot Awards for the lowest climate impact dish….
Nommm Climate Impact Labelling – The Golden Carrot Award Winners 2022
This year we teamed up with Nommm, who create climate impact labelling in a similar way to nutritional labels, that allow customers to clearly view the impact of the food options on a menu before they buy. Our food traders had the opportunity to calculate the environmental impact of their meals with Nommm and display these on their menus to help you lot make an educated decision about the meals you choose!
We used these impact scores alongside the overall nutritional value, to calculate the five lowest climate impact scores and awarded the traders behind them our Shambala Golden Carrot Award!
- Dosa Deli’s Onion Bhaji Bowl
- Pop Dogs’ Shawarma Fries
- Tibetan Kitchen’s Vegetable Momo Dumplings
- Mr Noodle’s Vegan Chicken Katsu Curry
- Flats and Smalls’ Za’atar Courgette
Congratulations to these brilliant traders on their low climate impact scores!
If you think you’ve got what it takes to feed 1,000s of hungry Shambalans sustainable plant based and veggie meals, why not apply to trade with us in 2023?
Big ups to all our traders this year – absolute legends.