New Zealand’s Inaugural Craft & Rare Spirits FestivalWellington, May 2018

The skies have darkened, and winter is upon us. It’s time to celebrate the night. We invite you to take part in Highball: New Zealand’s newest and most exciting annual spirits celebration. The finest of New Zealand craft spirits, rare imports and other libations are mixed with education and imbibing. The festival is headlined with an

immersive main event at the Embassy Theatre.

In the week following the main event, the Highball festival will see an array of spirits and cocktail events and collaborations hosted by Wellington’s leading purveyors (you!)

Highball takes you on a journey of spirits from distillation to cocktails. Meet the makers, taste their tipples and learn about the true art of cocktail-making. Highball

isn’t just about consumption, it’s about learning, appreciation and the very social nature of hospitality.

Highball, History and the Future

• The WCET owns and operates New Zealand’s largest culinary festival, Visa WOAP.

• Spirits form a small proportion of the current Visa WOAP activity, but we see a greater opportunity to develop a standalone event platform to celebrate Craft and Rare Spirits in New Zealand.

• An example of a standalone event platform is Beervana. 2017 saw:• 67 breweries from around New Zealand and the world• 452 beers on tap• 16,000 litres of beer

• No national celebration of craft and rare spirits - we see an opportunity to bring such an event to Wellington. Similar to Beervana in the themes of education and celebration but connecting directly with the cocktail and bar community.

• The Highball Festival runs from Saturday 05 May until Sunday 13 May 2018, which coincidentally is International Cocktail Day!

Objectives

We’re going to create an immersive, interactive and cutting-edge craft and rare spirits event that excites and entertains.We want to educate attendees about the New Zealand craft spirits industry, the variety of craft spirits being produced, introduce them to rare treasures and how to appreciate them.We’ll do this by:1. Raising the profile of craft and rare spirits through

distillers, manufacturers and suppliers2. Increasing Culinary Tourism to Wellington and New

Zealand in the shoulder season (May)3. Cementing Highball as New Zealand’s National Spirit

Event

Highball: The Main Event – 05/06 May• A Beervana-style immersive tasting event.• Timed entry, ticketed tasting and experience event that will use the different spaces within the Embassy

Theatre. Event will run from 12pm to 12am in two sessions.• Up to 50 attendees per timed entry (every 30 minutes) will be led on a journey through themed spaces

with entertainment throughout - think Jazz bands, ice sculptors, augmented reality projection, 80’s cocktail, Great Gatsby and Tiki Lounges will whisk attendees away to other worlds.

• On completion of the immersive experience, attendees can hang out in Black Sparrow, discuss, enjoy and connect over pay-as-you-go drinks and food at their leisure, or attend a seminar.

• A core point of difference of Highball will be the education programme. This programme will present a series of seminars covering a wide range of topics, such as “The chemistry of cocktails”, “Drink the Garden: how herbs and flowers have transformed our drinks” and “Made for TV: How television has shaped what and how we drink”. The seminar programme will be held in the two smaller theatrettes accessed from Black Sparrow.

• $65 entry fee (including highball glass and a free ‘welcome cocktail’. Preloaded wristbands will be used(like Beervana), to manage payments, transactions and flow of attendance.

• The overall experience from time of entry will last four hours, meaning at any point in time there will be up to 400 people in the venue.

• Targeting 2,000 attendees in the first year.

Highball Festival: Satellite Events – 07-13 May

Cocktail Events: We’re inviting bars and restaurants to run a spirits-related events in the week following Highball: The Main Event. Think about drinks partnerships, creative food and drink pairings or visiting mixologists in Wellington cocktail bars.

Restaurant activation: Restaurants are invited to add a special themed cocktail to their menu for the week following the The Main Event.

Retail participation: Spirits retailers are invited to coordinate instore displays and tastings of New Zealand craft and rare imported spirits for week leading up to or extending the month of May.

PLUS, remember that International Cocktail Day is celebrated each year on 13 May

Put together a special Highball cocktail list for the duration of the events week. Be creative! Create a theme or highlight a special product.

Highball Festival Cocktail Menu

We’ve created three great opportunity to profile your restaurant and get involved in Highball. To show the consumer the passion and drive that showcases your establishment and reach out to a sector of the market that may not have been to your establishment prior.

How to get involved

We invite you to run a cocktail event at your establishment as part of the Highball Festival events week. A celebration of craft and rare spirits and cocktails, your way. This can be pretty much anything! And again, be creative!

Highball Festival Events

• An appreciation of craft and rare spirits must be theprimary focus of all cocktail lists and events

• Innovation, flair and creativity is encouraged• Events must be different from normal operation• Events must adhere to liquor licensing and promotion laws,

and exhibit host responsibility• We’ll provide a PDF menu template for Festival Menus

Highball: Main Event Food Stand

We’re inviting restaurants to take part in the main event of Highball at the Embassy on the 5th and 6th of May. Similar to Beervana, we’ll offer up a limited number of food stands for you to feed the hungry masses and promote your establishment. Food stands will be the standard festival size.

Benefits of Participation – what you will receive

Events and pop ups included in the Highball programme will be part of a marketing and PR campaign and include promotion to WCET’s existing audience through our channels.

• A chance part of New Zealand’s inaugural national craft and rare spirits event

• For festival event runners, you’ll have a dedicated event listing on www.highball.co.nz. Cocktail lists and main event food offerings will also be promoted.

• Exposure to a new sector of the market that may not have been to your establishment prior

• Marketing tips and collateral to help promote your event including branded menu templates

• We encourage participants to share awesome images and content to help build Highball’s following!

Awareness & PR

• Be part of a media campaign across online, social media and outdoor channels

• This includes potential exposure to Visa WOAP and Beervana’s +95,000 social media/eNews followers

• Access to media and editorial opportunities with a range of media partners and food and drink influencers.

• We’ll be highlighting events and menus from the Highball programme via our channels.

• The higher the quality of the event or pop up, the more likely it is to be included in media activity!

Participation Fees

Ticketed Festival EventsHighball take a commission of 10% on all tickets sold. See Ticketing Mechanics & Benefits slide for more details.

Pop up/pay on consumption Festival Events$300 + GST per event.

Highball Festival Menu$75 + GST.

Main Event Food Stand$500 + GST and 10% of sales on the day.

Ticketing Mechanics & BenefitsTicketed Festival Events:

The online ticketing system is operated by Eventbrite. It’s fully integrated into Facebook, meaning that customers can complete their ticketing transaction within Facebook, without having to go to another site. The reporting provided through Eventbrite is excellent and in real time

A booking fee is deducted from each ticket sold. There have been some recent changes to the legislation around the presentation of ticket charges (i.e. ticket issuance fees), which means that these will need to be considered when setting your ticket prices, the fees need to be part of the ticket price. This means that once you have determined your ticket price, we will add 10% to the price to cover all Eventbrite fees and your contribution to marketing expenses (refer to the ‘Benefits of Participation’ section).

• EXAMPLE: If it costs you $20 (inc GST) to run your event. Tickets will be sold for $22Please note: Eventbrite charge a flat rate of 2.0% for all credit card transactions (Visa or Mastercard). This is charged directly to the consumer on top of the ticket price at the time of payment.

How to sign up to Highball 2018• The application portal with 2018 Highball applications will be available on the Visa WOAP dashboard from midday,

Friday 26 January and will close at 12 noon, Friday 23 February. https://www.visawoap.com/users/login

• New to WCET events? Please create a login: https://www.visawoap.com/users/register

• Previous WCET event participants (Visa WOAP, Beervana or RTB) with an existing Kickerberry account simply use previous account details (reset your password if you have forgotten)

• There should only be one account per restaurant or event host

• You will be able to register interest for Main Event Food Stands and Festival Cocktail Menu’s on this form. We’ll issue more details to interested parties at a later date

• VENUE: Add or edit venue details – you must enter or edit a venue to host your event(s)

• EVENTS: Complete the application form for your Highball satellite event to the best of your ability. There are two streams of information required:

• Background (the information that tells us about you and your offer –the admin stuff!)•• Listing content (the information that will be displayed to the consumer) •• You can save your application and log in to add or edit information at any point until midday, 23 February• Upload an image (NB: no logos or text, at least 1MB in size)

• Pay application fee (refunded if unsuccessful). The application fee provides Highball with cash flow to enable marketing, PR and related activity such as website development to commence

Highball Key Dates 2018

5pm, 26 January: Applications open

12 noon, 23 February: Applications close

19 March: Programme Launched / Tickets on Sale

/ Website Live

05 & 06 May 12pm to 12am: Highball: The Main Event

07 – 13 May: Highball Festival Events week

13 May: International Cocktail Day

Draft Highball brand concepts

More info?

If you have any questions about anything covered in this document or anything else Highball related, don’t hesitate to get in touch!Riki@highball.co.nz