Lord’s cricket ground to open its doors to food festival in autumn
Sports stadiums such as Lord’s can gather dust for much of the year. Whether to do with the length of the off-season, the time between home matches or the circumstances surrounding a given season, venues often need to be used for non-sporting purposes to ensure they turn a profit throughout the calendar.
Some turn into conference facilities, others host different sports. But at Lord’s, the home of cricket? Well, they’re looking at food.
The Home of Food festival will hit the creases in September with an aim of bringing together Michelin star chefs and punters at reasonable prices.
The gathering will see affordable food and luxury experiences in the grounds of the north London cricket ground as Lord’s looks to build on its out-of-season offering.
Lord’s strategy
“It’s part of our longer term strategy to open Lord’s up,” Andy Muggleton, commercial director at Lord’s owners the MCC, told City PM
“We’re an amazing facility in central London and we’re geared up to host major cricket events but we know that we’ve got a great opportunity to deliver new and exciting events that engage with different audiences.
“And through some of our collaborations, with the likes of [chef] Tommy Banks over the last few years, this was a really exciting opportunity for us to showcase and engage with new audiences around our food credentials, create something really wonderful at the home of cricket and naturally a cheeky play on the home of cricket becoming The Home of Food.”
Lord’s will this year stage an Ashes Test, a five-day match against Ireland and a number of other high-profile contests, including a one-day match in the Women’s Ashes. But sports grounds are desperate to maximise income amid the cost of living crisis and worries about reserves in the bank.
“We’ve got an asset here that’s busy for 60 days of the year, or thereabouts,” Muggleton added. “And whilst we have a thriving events and experiences business, we also want to be making sure that we’re delivering to the local community.
“[Hosting] a concert is a long way off, frankly. We need to be very careful around how we manage and deliver. This [the food festival] is the first step in demonstrating that we can deliver non-intrusive events that add value to the local economy and the local community.
Abbey Road…
“You’ve got Abbey Road, you’ve got London Zoo [in the area] but I think from a location perspective we’re able to do more. I don’t see us staging loud, amplified concerts in the short term, maybe one day in the future, but we’ve got to be cognisant of the fact that we have residents in close proximity.”
On the food festival coming to Lord’s on 9 and 10 September, Banks said: “I have been mad about cricket from a young age and always dreamed of one day becoming a professional cricketer.
“In recent years we’ve run some fantastic events together but the launch of The Home of Food gives me the chance to bring some of my favourite peers from the hospitality industry to Lord’s, to showcase their amazing food and drink.
“In the same way that cricket crosses borders, food is a theme celebrated so widely across the world, and we’ve got some fantastic chefs coming for the weekend to showcase their culinary talent.”