When people think about energy at festivals, they tend to picture big stages and lighting rigs. But monitoring at festivals participating in the Green Deal Circular Festivals (GDCF) shows a different picture: depending on the type of festival, food caterers account for up to 65% of total electricity demand. That’s a substantial share of the energy budget and an interesting starting point for potential carbon and fuel savings.
That’s why a study was launched this year into electricity use per caterer. The aims were to:
- understand which power profiles different types of kitchens have;
- explore whether we can group them into categories (for example “baseload kitchen” vs “peak kitchen”);
- make a first estimate of energy and CO₂ impact per dish sold, so festival organisers can use this as an extra criterion when designing their food offering.
This should be seen as an initial exploration: the dataset is still too small to draw firm conclusions, but the first insights are promising.
How and where was data collected?
The study was carried out at three festivals in 2025:
- Into The Great Wide Open (ITGWO)
- Lago Lago
- Zwarte Cross
In total, 14 caterers were monitored, with a wide range of kitchen types: from fries and snacks to pizza, toasties, coffee, rice dishes, pitas and crêpes. This provides a first cross-section of both light and heavy energy users.Where possible, the following data was collected for each caterer:
- Power logs: time series of energy use via smart meters (measurements every few minutes).
- Equipment list: which appliances are present, including rated power (kW).
- Type of dishes: what kind of menu is being sold.
- Transaction logs: sales volumes per product over time (so power logs can be linked to how busy a caterer was).
Based on this, characteristic indicators were calculated per caterer, such as:
- Total electricity consumption (kWh) during the event.
- Average power (kW) and peak power (kW).
- Consumption at night and during hours with no transactions, as an indicator of standby/idle use.
- Energy per dish (kWh per item):
- during service hours, when sales are actually taking place;
- and including idle hours, representing the full energy cost per portion.
You can think of kWh per dish as: How much energy does it take to prepare one portion of fries, pizza or crêpe, including keeping equipment on and warm?
Three types of power profiles among caterers
When we place the measured power profiles side by side, three broad categories of caterers emerge:
- Type 1 - Heavy baseload kitchens
- Characteristics: a lot of equipment is switched on for long periods (fryers, griddles, ovens, hot-holding cabinets).
- Effect: high average power, a lot of night and idle consumption; peaks are less pronounced.
- Type 2 - Peak-driven kitchens
- Characteristics: relatively low consumption outside service, but clear peaks around lunch and dinner.
- Effect: lower total kWh, but still critical for sizing the connection (Peak/Avg ratio is relatively high).
- Type 3 - Light, efficient kitchens
- Characteristics: light equipment, short switching-on times, little night-time use.
- Effect: low total consumption and low peaks – the “low impact” segment.
Contracted capacity vs. actual use
One striking insight is the difference between the requested peak capacity (based on the equipment list) and the actual measured peak power.
- For several caterers, the measured peak power was only 37–60% of the total requested capacity. This suggests that the full set of appliances in use often doesn’t reach the theoretical peak that manufacturers indicate is possible.
- Power suppliers already account for this to some extent, often using a rule of thumb of about 70% of the theoretical peak. There may be room to tighten this further, but more research is needed before that can be stated with confidence.
At the same time, there were cases where measured peak power was significantly higher than what the equipment list would suggest. It’s important to check this carefully together with the caterer and metering provider.
How much energy does one portion cost?
Based on meter data and sales volumes, a first list of energy consumption per product category was compiled. We distinguish between:
- Service-only hours: how much energy is used during times when sales are taking place.
- Service + idle hours: including night-time and quiet periods when equipment is still switched on.
The table below shows the calculated values per product category:
These values are initial, indicative figures, based on a limited set of caterers. The list is mainly intended as a practical parameter for festivals and food bookers: what would a food court look like that not only offers culinary diversity, but is also balanced in terms of power demand?
Gas vs electricity: first CO₂ estimate
For two product categories we explored what happens if the main cooking appliances (oven or griddle) switch from gas to electricity. We assume that the festival power comes from a grid connection supplied with green electricity.
The hypothetical outcomes, based on calculations:
- Pizza: a saving of roughly 4–7 grams of CO₂ per pizza compared to baking in a gas oven.
- Crêpes: a saving of roughly 15–25 grams of CO₂ per crêpe compared to a gas-fired crêpe plate.
These estimates only cover the cooking process; transport, packaging and the production of the food itself are not included.
A crucial nuance:
- If a festival still runs on diesel generators, the CO₂ footprint of electric alternatives can actually be higher than gas.
- With generators running on HVO100, CO₂ emissions are significantly lower than for fossil diesel, which can make electric equipment more favourable than gas.
In short: the “best” choice depends on both the equipment and the energy source on site.
What can festivals do with this already?
Even though this was a pilot, a few practical lessons already stand out:
- Ask for detailed equipment and power data
- Ask caterers to specify which appliances they will bring, with realistic power ratings and expected hours of use. This improves the process of designing a smart power plan.
- Balance the energy profile of the food area
- When designing the food offer, look for a mix of:
- baseload caterers;
- peak-driven caterers;
- light users.
This helps flatten peaks and enables more efficient use of generators or grid connections.
- Watch idle consumption
- Discuss with caterers which appliances really need to stay on and which can be switched off during idle hours (outside opening times). By turning equipment off or planning more cleverly, a 10–30% reduction in night-time consumption seems achievable, especially for the heaviest users.
- Use kWh per dish as a conversation tool
- These first kWh-per-dish figures can be used in internal discussions or conversations with the food booker to create a food offer that is not only varied, healthy and sustainable, but also balanced in terms of power profile.
- Which dishes are relatively “heavy”?
- Are there alternatives with a similar experience but lower energy impact?
Next steps: towards a more robust database
This first measurement round shows that more and better data pays off. For a truly robust tool we need:
- more measured festivals and caterers, so that all common product categories are covered;
- multiple measurements per category, to arrive at more reliable averages;
- tighter links between equipment lists, meters and point-of-sale systems, so we can assign energy use to products even more precisely.
foto door Kirsten van Santen (Lago Lago, 2025)