Cambridge Food & Drink Week 2026 took place from 9th–17th May, delivering a city-wide celebration of Cambridge’s vibrant hospitality sector. Organised and delivered by Cambridge BID through the Love Cambridge brand, the week showcased the city’s restaurants, cafés, bars, pubs, hotels and independent food businesses through exclusive offers, curated trails, networking events, public activations and hospitality-led experiences.
The initiative was designed to encourage residents and visitors to explore Cambridge’s hospitality scene while supporting local businesses through increased visibility, marketing and customer engagement. Throughout the week, the city came alive with a diverse programme of experiences, activations and promotions designed to celebrate the strength and diversity of Cambridge’s food and drink offer.
Cambridge Food & Drink Week 2026 aimed to:
Encourage visitors to explore new venues and experiences
Support hospitality businesses through collaborative promotion
Increase footfall and customer engagement
Showcase Hospitality BID area businesses
Deliver engaging city-centre activations
Create opportunities for industry networking and collaboration
The 2026 programme included:
Taste the City downloadable offers
Cocktail, Sweet Treat and Independent venue trails
Hospitality networking and business events
Public-facing activations
Curated hospitality experiences
Independent food and drink showcase
City-wide digital and PR promotion
Project Overview
May 9th – May 17th | Delivered by Cambridge BID | Event promoted under Love Cambridge
Headline Sponsor
Launch Event Sponsor
Opening Event Sponsor
Campaign Features
City-wide offers and promotions
Hospitality experiences
Public activations
Food and drink trails
Business networking events
Industry panel discussions
The campaign microsite acted as the central hub for the event, hosting venue offers, downloadable codes, trail information, experiences and event listings.
Sponsorship & Partnerships
Cambridge Food & Drink Week 2026 was made possible through collaboration between sponsors, hospitality businesses and city partners.
Headline Sponsor -Elle-Events Management
Elle-Events Management played a significant role in enhancing the overall programme through:
· Curated hospitality experiences
· Independent Food & Drink Fair delivery
· Promotional support
· Hospitality sector engagement
Their involvement helped elevate the campaign and expand the event programme throughout the week.
Launch Event Sponsor - The Orator
Sponsored the industry networking launch event.
Opening Event Sponsor - Greys Bars
Sponsored the Lion Yard public opening activation.
The support from sponsors helped deliver additional public engagement opportunities while strengthening the overall impact and visibility of the campaign.
Business Feedback & Impact
Feedback gathered from participating businesses across the full Cambridge Food & Drink Week programme highlighted a highly positive response to the campaign and its impact on visibility, customer engagement and footfall.
The feedback covered businesses involved in a variety of ways throughout the week, including:
Venue offers and promotions
Food and drink trails
Hosted events and experiences
Independent showcases
Campaign partnerships and activations
Overall, businesses rated their experience of participating in Cambridge Food & Drink Week:
4.5/5 Overall Business Experience Rating
The campaign also demonstrated positive commercial and engagement outcomes for participating venues and businesses.
Business Impact Highlights
50% of businesses reported a slight increase in footfall
57% reported gaining new customers
Marketing and PR activity achieved a score of 4.14/5
100% said they would participate again next year
Feedback from businesses highlighted the value of the campaign in encouraging customer discovery, trial and repeat visitation, particularly through the use of offers, trails and promotional activity.
One participating business shared a particularly strong example of how the campaign helped convert first-time visitors into long-term customers:
“I had a group of builders who had never tried my hot dogs before as our price is higher than another local vendor. They tried mine for the first time during the promotion. They then visited 3 days in a row to claim the promotion each day and have now become regular customers since the promotion ended.”
The positive business feedback also reinforced the importance of collaborative city-wide campaigns in supporting Cambridge’s hospitality sector while encouraging residents and visitors to explore and support local businesses.
Marketing & Promotion
Cambridge Food & Drink Week 2026 was supported by a large-scale marketing, PR and digital campaign delivered across social media, website content, paid advertising, press coverage and partner promotion.
Promotion ran across Love Cambridge platforms from 1st April through to the conclusion of the event on 17th May. The campaign combined organic content, paid social advertising, partner amplification, venue engagement and live event coverage to maximise awareness and participation throughout the city.
Marketing activity included:
Dedicated campaign microsite
Social media campaigns
Paid advertising
Press and PR activity
Venue toolkits and downloadable assets
Email marketing campaigns
Partner amplification
Influencer and media engagement
Event and experience promotion
The campaign focused heavily on:
Promoting participating venues
Encouraging offer downloads
Driving trail engagement
Highlighting hospitality experiences
Supporting independent businesses
Increasing awareness of Cambridge’s food and drink scene
Social Media, Website & Advertising Performance
Love Cambridge Channels (1st April – 17th May 2026)
The campaign generated strong engagement and visibility across Love Cambridge social media channels throughout the event period.
147.4K views
241.2K views
25K reach
Instagram performed particularly strongly during the campaign, driven by video content, reels, venue collaborations, event photography and hospitality-focused storytelling.
Content surrounding:
Opening events
Mocktail activations
Independent businesses
Hospitality experiences
Food and drink trails
generated particularly high engagement levels and helped maintain momentum throughout the week.
Paid Advertising Performance
Paid advertising activity further amplified campaign reach and visibility, generating:
75.4K advert views
37.1K viewers reached
1,580 campaign results
The advertising campaign played a significant role in increasing awareness of the event, driving traffic to the campaign website and encouraging participation in offers, trails and experiences.
Combined organic and paid marketing activity helped establish Cambridge Food & Drink Week as a highly visible city-wide campaign while driving engagement both online and in person.
Influencer & Content Creator Campaign Performance
Partnership with Cambridge Foodies
As part of the wider marketing and promotional strategy for Cambridge Food & Drink Week 2026, Cambridge BID partnered with Cambridge Foodies to help amplify the campaign, increase audience reach and encourage engagement with participating venues, trails and experiences.
The partnership played an important role in extending the visibility of Food & Drink Week beyond Cambridge BID and Love Cambridge owned channels, helping the campaign reach wider hospitality, lifestyle and visitor audiences across social media and digital platforms.
The campaign performed strongly across multiple platforms, supported by Cambridge Foodies’ wider platform reach of approximately: 457,000 monthly impressions
Content focused heavily on:
Food & Drink Week trails
Independent venues
Cocktail offers
Experiences and activations
Venue recommendations
Encouraging visitors to explore the city
Particular engagement was seen around:
The £7.50 Cocktail Trail
Independent hospitality businesses
Experiential and discovery-led content
The campaign generated strong audience engagement and positive interaction throughout the campaign period.
Organic Reposts & Shares
The campaign also benefited from dozens of additional reposts and social shares across Instagram and partner channels, further amplifying visibility and awareness throughout the duration of the event.
While exact repost figures were unavailable, the additional organic amplification helped strengthen campaign reach and audience engagement.
The partnership with Cambridge Foodies successfully complemented Cambridge BID’s wider marketing activity by:
Expanding campaign reach
Increasing visibility for participating businesses
Supporting trail engagement
Driving awareness of offers and experiences
Encouraging discovery of independent hospitality businesses
Creating authentic, experience-led promotion of the city’s food and drink scene
The collaboration demonstrated the growing value of creator-led digital marketing and local influencer partnerships in promoting city-wide hospitality campaigns and engaging socially active audiences.
Website & Offer Performance
The Cambridge Food & Drink Week microsite acted as the central information hub for the campaign, hosting:
Venue offers
Downloadable vouchers
Trail maps
Experience bookings
Event information
Participating business listings
The website saw strong engagement throughout the campaign period, particularly during the week of the event, with traffic peaking around the official launch weekend and throughout the opening days of Food & Drink Week.
Overall Website Performance
1st April – 17th May
Across the wider Food & Drink Week website pages:
67,780 total page views
10,056 active users
114,244 total events recorded
The data also demonstrated strong repeat engagement, with users returning to the website multiple times throughout the campaign period to revisit offers, trails and experiences.
Top Performing Pages
Cambridge Food & Drink Week Main Page
15,387 views
5,563 active users
Accounted for 22.7% of all website views
The main campaign landing page acted as the primary destination for visitors looking to explore the event and discover participating venues, offers and activities.
Taste the City Offers Page
10,319 views
3,013 active users
Over 900 offer codes downloaded
The Taste the City page performed particularly strongly, demonstrating high public interest in downloadable offers and promotional activity across participating businesses.
Food Trails Page
7,271 views
2,243 active users
The trails generated significant engagement throughout the campaign, particularly the Cocktail Trail and Independent venue activity, helping encourage exploration across the city.
Experiences & Events Page
6,844 views
2,328 active users
The Experiences & Events section highlighted strong public interest in curated experiences, tastings, activations and hosted events taking place during the week.
This demonstrated strong audience interest in unique hospitality experiences and destination-led food and drink activity throughout the campaign period.
User Behaviour & Engagement
The data showed visitors were not only accessing the website in high numbers but were actively exploring multiple sections and revisiting content throughout the campaign.
Key engagement insights included:
Strong repeat visitation across the event period
High interaction with offer and trail content
Significant interest in curated experiences and independent venues
Increased traffic leading into and during the opening weekend
Sustained engagement throughout the full duration of the campaign
Overall, the digital performance demonstrated strong public interest in Cambridge Food & Drink Week 2026 and highlighted the importance of accessible, experience-led online content in supporting city-wide hospitality campaigns.
Taste the City
Offer Downloads
The Taste the City campaign encouraged visitors to download exclusive venue offers using the code: F&Dweek26
Throughout the campaign: Over 900 venue offer downloads were recorded
Analysis of offer performance identified several trends:
Premium-value offers performed particularly well
Offers with strong perceived value achieved higher engagement
Businesses actively promoting their involvement online and in-venue generally saw stronger participation levels
Longer listing visibility and early campaign engagement positively impacted download rates
The campaign successfully encouraged exploration across the city while driving engagement with participating hospitality businesses.
Events
Industry Launch Event - Sponsored by The Orator
Ahead of the public launch, an industry networking and launch event was hosted at The Orator, bringing together hospitality businesses, sponsors, partners, media and stakeholders to celebrate the beginning of Cambridge Food & Drink Week 2026.
The event created an opportunity for networking, collaboration and discussion while also building excitement around the week ahead.
The evening helped position Food & Drink Week as both a consumer-facing campaign and a valuable business engagement opportunity for the hospitality sector.
The launch event received an overall satisfaction score of:
4.5/5 Overall Event Rating
Importantly, the event also encouraged further participation in the wider programme:
75% said the event encouraged them to engage with the rest of Food & Drink Week
100% said they would attend again
Attendee feedback reflected the positive atmosphere and networking opportunities created throughout the evening:
“A huge thank you to all the organisers for creating such a fantastic networking event at the beautiful The Orator. Events like these bring people together, create meaningful conversations, and strengthen the local business community.”
The event successfully strengthened hospitality relationships across the city while creating a strong launch moment for the campaign.
Public Opening Event - Sponsored by Greys Bars (held at Lion Yard)
The public opening event took place at Lion Yard Shopping Centre on Saturday 9th May and officially launched Cambridge Food & Drink Week 2026 to the public.
Sponsored by Greys Bars, the activation was designed as a high footfall placemaking event focused on creating visibility, excitement and public engagement around the campaign.
The activation brought energy and atmosphere into the city centre through complimentary mocktails, direct engagement with visitors and promotion of participating businesses and experiences across the city.
Event Highlights
Over 300 mocktails distributed
High public engagement throughout the activation
Strong visibility within the city centre
Direct promotion of trails, offers and experiences
The activation successfully created a vibrant launch moment for the campaign while encouraging visitors to further explore Food & Drink Week activities throughout the city.
The public opening event received exceptionally positive feedback, achieving an overall experience score of:
4.87/5 Overall Event Rating
Many attendees either discovered the event while passing through the city centre or through social media promotion, highlighting the effectiveness of combining public-facing activations with digital marketing.
The event also successfully encouraged wider participation in the campaign:
93.3% said the event encouraged them to engage with other Food & Drink Week activities
86.7% said they would attend again
0% said they would not attend again
The success of the activation demonstrated the value of experiential city-centre activity in increasing visibility, footfall and engagement during the campaign period.
Hospitality Panel Event – in Partnership with Elle Events Management
“Hospitality: 25 Years of Change and the Future of the Industry”
Town & Gown Theatre – 12th May 2026
The Hospitality Panel Event was one of the flagship business events delivered during Cambridge Food & Drink Week 2026.
Hosted at the Town & Gown Theatre, the event brought together hospitality professionals, venue owners, stakeholders and industry leaders for an evening of discussion, networking and sector insight.
The event explored a range of key topics affecting the hospitality industry, including:
Industry challenges and opportunities
Staffing and recruitment
Future hospitality trends
Business resilience
Visitor economy growth
The future of hospitality within Cambridge
We welcomed keynote speaker Allen Simpson, Chief Executive of UKHospitality, who provided insight into the national and political landscape surrounding the hospitality sector, alongside discussing key commercial trends currently shaping the industry.
Three major commercial themes were explored during the keynote presentation:
What Does Sustainability Mean to the Consumer?
Consumers are increasingly interested in sustainability; however, businesses were encouraged to recognise that customers are more likely to choose greener options when they also deliver added value, quality or an enhanced experience.
Experience Over Price
The session explored how hospitality businesses are seeing greater success through experience-led offers rather than competing solely on price, with consumers increasingly prioritising memorable and engaging experiences over discounts.
Demographics Are Destiny
Businesses were encouraged to consider changing demographics and future audiences, highlighting the importance of adapting hospitality offers, venues and experiences to reflect increasingly diverse communities and evolving consumer expectations.
Following the keynote presentation, attendees heard from a panel representing a broad range of hospitality and industry expertise.
The panel included:
Louise Holly, Owner of MASH and Kiki’s, sharing insight from the late-night hospitality sector
Richard Holmes, Owner of Pint Shop, discussing the restaurant sector
Chris Douglas, General Manager of Graduate by Hilton Cambridge, providing a hotel and accommodation perspective
Matthew Potter, Partner at Howes Percival LLP, covering legal considerations and industry challenges
The panel created an engaging and informative discussion around the evolving hospitality landscape, encouraging conversation around both the opportunities and challenges facing the sector.
The event was hosted by Hattie Carter, whose passion for hospitality and strong connection to the industry helped guide the discussion and encourage engaging conversation throughout the evening.
The event received extremely positive feedback from attendees, achieving an overall satisfaction score of:
4.7/5 Overall Event Rating
The event also acted as a gateway into the wider Food & Drink Week programme:
72% said the event encouraged them to engage with the rest of Food & Drink Week
91% said they would attend again
0% said they would not attend again
Feedback from attendees highlighted the quality and value of the discussions:
“The panel was really interesting, it was enlightening to have heads of a variety of hospitality businesses, and the key speaker was very insightful into the demographics of current and future businesses and how the current administration perceive hospitality.”
“It was an interesting insight into the challenges faced by businesses in hospitality. I thought the speakers; host and the discussion were very engaging.”
The success of the Hospitality Panel Event demonstrated a clear appetite for future hospitality-focused networking and discussion events within Cambridge.
Independent Food & Drink Fair
Delivered by Elle Events Management
As part of their role as Headline Sponsor, Elle-Events Management curated and delivered the Independent Food & Drink Fair during Cambridge Food & Drink Week 2026.
The event celebrated Cambridge’s independent hospitality and food businesses while creating an engaging public-facing showcase for visitors to discover local traders, producers and independent brands.
The fair added an experiential element to the wider programme while supporting independent businesses through direct customer engagement and visibility.
Event Highlights
Over 250 visitors attended throughout the day
Strong engagement between businesses and visitors
Positive business participation and feedback
Trails
Food & Drink Week 2026 featured a range of themed trails and curated experiences designed to encourage visitors to explore the city and discover new venues.
Cocktail Trail
Featured exclusive cocktails available at participating venues for £7.50.
Sweet Treat Trail
Highlighted desserts, bakeries and sweet offers available for under £5.
Independent Venue Trail
Encouraged visitors to discover and support independent hospitality businesses across Cambridge.
The trail structure helped encourage movement across the city while increasing visibility for participating venues and supporting wider customer discovery.
Conclusion
Cambridge Food & Drink Week 2026 successfully delivered a vibrant and engaging city-wide celebration of Cambridge’s hospitality sector.
Through a combination of:
Public activations
Hospitality experiences
Trails and offers
Business networking
Industry discussions
Independent showcases
Extensive digital promotion
the campaign generated strong visibility, engagement and participation across the city.
The week demonstrated the strength, creativity and resilience of Cambridge’s hospitality sector while encouraging residents and visitors to explore and support local businesses.
Positive feedback from businesses, attendees and visitors highlights the success of the campaign in increasing awareness, driving engagement and creating valuable opportunities for collaboration across the hospitality industry.
Cambridge Food & Drink Week 2026 has created a strong foundation for future growth and development, positioning the event as an important annual celebration of the City’s hospitality and visitor economy.
