Applications for the 2022 World Food & Music Festival are now open.

Applications for the 2022 Festival will close May 15th, 2022

The World Food & Music Festival is Des Moines’ premiere taste and entertainment event featuring international cuisine, live music and performing arts, cooking demonstrations, wine and craft beers and a world marketplace.

Produced by the Greater Des Moines Partnership, The Festival begin in October 2005 in the Historic East Village of Downtown Des Moines. Over the years, The Festival expanded its vendors, programming and entertainment and continued to see more guests enjoying the activities each year. To accommodate the growth, The Festival moved onto the Downtown DSM bridges for several years and in 2017 expanded into its current home in Western Gateway Park. Today, more than 90,000 guests visit The Festival each year.

Interested parties should read the enclosed information. 

 

2022 Festival Dates, Hours & Location:

When: Friday, Sept. 16, Saturday, Sept. 17, Sunday, Sept. 18

Hours: Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. | Sunday, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Where: Western Gateway Park, Downtown Des Moines, IA 

Questions:
Jerrica Marshall, Downtown Placemaking Manager
jmarshall@downtowndsmusa.com | (515) 286-4911

Only complete applications submitted with application fee will be considered. Application fee is a non-refundable $25 fee for processing your application regardless of acceptance. All other fees will be due upon acceptance and invoiced when a contract is issued.

All vendor status notifications will be sent out via email. We may keep a limited number of vendors on a waitlist through the month of July in case space becomes available. All applicants will receive an email notifying them whether they have been accepted, waitlisted or rejected.

Applications must be submitted electronically and include the online application fee of $25.

 

The Festival will supply the following:

- Tented space

- Two (2) 8 ft. long tables 

- Professionaly designed signage displaying your vendor name and menu

- One ceiling light inside tent - no additional lighting is provided

- Shared wastewater and grease barrels

- Shared, limited refrigerated truck space (these are not freezer trucks)

- Trash container for vendor-only use

- Portable water source (you must provide transporation of water)

- Convenient vehicle drive-in for set-up and tear-down

- 90,000+ hungry people!

Electrical

Each power outlet is $40. If you have participated in a prior World Food & Music Festival, your previous power usage will be used for reference in deteming your power needs. Only Festival provided electricity and generators are allowed on-site. New accepted vendors will recieve a more detailed form to confirm power needs.

Menu Information

Vendors are selected based on menu items and type of food. Only approved items may be sold at The Festival. We do our best to limit similar food items; however, we do not offer exclusivity of any menu items or food type. Special effort will be taken to limit duplicate menu items. In the event that multiple vendors have the same item, we will look at alternate items to determine the final accepted menu.

Please note: All vendors are limited to a MAXIMUM of 8 menu items, which CANNOT be priced more than $7.  Only pre-approved beverages e.g. specialty coffee, homemade lemonade, specialty juices, etc. may be sold. The Festival handles ALL soda, water and alcohol sales; vendors will not be allowed to sell these items. 

The Festival STRONGLY ENCOURAGES vendors to provide a variety of portion sizes and price points. Guests enjoy purchasing food from multiple vendors rather then an entire meal from one vendor. 

 

Menu item descriptions will be requested upon acceptance for signage printing.

Please note: The application fee is a non-refundable $25 fee for processing your application regardless of acceptance. All other fees will be due upon acceptance and invoiced when a contract is issued.