Feature
MUSLIM SHOPPING
FESTIVAL
www.muslimshoppingfestival.
com
Venue – Olympia
Date - 18-19th April
Over 17,000 shoppers attend
over two days for a pre-
Ramadan shop. Audience 80
per cent female.
LONDON EID FESTIVAL
www.londoneid.com
Venue – Westfield London
Date – 30 -31st May
Over 186,000 visitors
over two days. Last year’s
attendees beat Boxing Day
weekend footfall at Westfield.
John Lewis saw a 69 per cent
increase in footfall over that
weekend.
LONDON HALAL FOOD
FESTIVAL
www.halalfoodfest.com
Venue – Tobacco Dock
Date – 25-26th July
Over 20,000 foodies attend
over two days - the TASTE
festival for Muslims. It’s the
world’s biggest event of its
kind for the halal food industry
and food lovers market and
includes includes exhibitors
like Hellman’s, Sainsbury
Tilda to name but a few. Food
is the Muslim communities
biggest vice as most don’t
spend on alcohol or dining
out as much.
48 — April
audience.
Tell us about your team?
Our team are a family. Like
any other event organiser,
we are evenly divided into
three critical elements
– sales, marketing and
operations. We have a very
experienced and dedicated
team, that has a breath of
experience of a wide range
of different events.
How are community events
growing in the UK?
Community events have
grown massively in the UK.
We are now a multicultural
nation with a vast number
of ethnicities to cater for.
For us, a huge part is to
celebrate uniqueness and
understanding. There’s
a shift in the way people
think; family comes first,
then community and then
country. There’s a need for
belonging and the Muslim
community is brilliant at
looking after one another.
Essentially, trade shows
operate in a similar way.
They bring together an
industry, people learn from
one another or through
seminars, and there’s a need
to for recognition and the
chance to network.
What are your UK and global
plans?
We have grown at such a
rapid pace over the past
five years, but we’ve been
careful not to lose focus. We
understand what our basic
business model is, and it is
cloneable internationally.
We are now looking at
four countries where we’d
like to grow our event into
international brands.
What other gaps in the
market exist around these
sorts of events?
There are many gaps yet
to fill. We have only just
scratched the surface of the
F&B and shopping arena.
Similar events could be
organised, which focus on
other lifestyle-orientated
products and services
that are aspirational and
appealing to the Muslim
consumer. Mainstream
brands how figured out how
to market products to the
Muslim community. It’s
obvious to us that brands
that work with us, have
an immediate connection
through trust and
understanding.