Well…the gig was 5 days ago. I wonder how it went? 

The Space is small – they could not fit anymore than 400 (if that)- they do not have a beer permit and have no food. They are not selling anything. Its a new venue that has a stage and not much more. My cart will be outside.
I guess I should explain that they are not main stream at all – deathmetal might be one word?
At any rate – it will be at least 200 – 400 max – Please answer my questions if you can…

Max,
If it was me, I would pre-purchase enough food for 100 full servings. Also have a trusted runner on hand to go get more food if/when needed. The drinks and prepackaged items, I would go ahead and load up right from the get-go.
I would plan on getting food in 50 serving increments. Yeah, you may have to make 4 trips through the course of the evening, but that is a small price to pay for the education you’ll receive to be better prepared for the next event.
 
That’s just me
Good luck. Mike
Edit to add; Start with 100 servings, after selling 50, send for another 50.

Your doing an event and need to charge accordingly. $2 for water is a fair price at any event. At an event I wouldn’t sell anything for $1.  Just my 2cents. Good Luck

Have a lot of water available. It’s cheap and you’ll sell 3 times what you think’
 
Jerry

First I’d try to get a better fix on the crowd size. Doesn’t sound like a lot of people with 8 bands – 3 touring nationally performing. You say the venue is limited? They must charge a ton of $$$ for a ticket! 8 bands would cost the promoters a ton. It doesn’t add up. Is it in or outside? Is alcohol being served? Are you sure you’re the only vendor?
 

Reading this brings shades of Big Red Lunch Box doing music festivals
He should chime in.

Hello all ,
Good luck with the event and be sure to let us all know how you did , what worked , what could be done better , you get the idea
Benzee

Based on your stated experience level in moving product and an expected 200-400 crowd , I would tend to lean more on the conservative side.
 
My logic:
 
For example using Vienna 8/1, I would take 160 hot dogs (2 cases at two 40ct bags/case) , 160 buns, and enough condiments to support. I chose these numbers because selling OUT 160 hot dogs would be a worthwile endeavor and reduce your risk of waste. The number you choose should depend on how many hot dogs you have once you open the box. In my case, when I open a bag it has 40 hot dogs in it. I can’t take frozen product to an event because it takes the cart temps down too far and  takes to long to bring back up to temp. Also, I don’t like to re-freeze opened bags of hot dogs, especially in a cart environment. So I open 40 at a time and what I don’t sell I take home to eat myself. Also, my cart takes longer to heat up in the winter than in the summer, so that is also a factor in using thawed product versus frozen. Although it doesn’t seem like it, managing your product to reduce waste is where you make your money.
 
Perhaps try a different approach:
Take plenty of water and drinks as they can be reused if not sold. For this event, consider shifting your mindset away from being primarily a hot dog vendor that also has refreshments to a refreshment vendor who has a few hot dogs on hand if somebody is hungry. At the event you describe, I’d rather sell 300 drinks and 100 dogs versus 300 dogs and 100 drinks. Take a reasonable # of hot dogs that would provide a nice little profit and sell them out. If you sell out in the first three hours then great, you made your money and don’t have any waste. Remember, you still have a lot of drink on hand and what doesn’t sell is good for another mission.
 
Don’t fall into the “I’m the only vendor trap” and end up taking too much product.
 
If you are working your cart by yourself, selling 160 dogs and managing your product and money is a lot of work. Selling 20 dogs per hour is one every 3 minutes so in an 8 hour evening, at that rate, you would hit the 160#.  One dog every three minutes doesn’t sound like much but when you consider adding product and managing your cart, managing drink coolers, handling money, idle chit chat with customers,�� bathroom breaks etc, you will find out that it’s easy on paper but a lot harder in practice. Selling 2 hot dogs per customer would cut you down to 4 hours before you sold out which would be great and put you on cruise control for the rest of the evening.
 
Taking 500 hot dogs an expecting to sell them all in one evening is a lofty goal and may be doable if you have 2 or 3 people helping you. You will need a continious line at your cart to do it.  I’m sure there are vendors on this forum who can do it, but it takes a lot of experience and hard hard work and it’s not easy.
 
Just food for thought. Good luck to you.
 
Arnie

Max,
I would go 70-30% dogs over polish. Don’t overcharge just because you think u can. Have some business cards ready, this might lead to other gigs. Be ready for rush when concert is over. Have plenty of dogs ready. Remember, everyone who buys is a customer and deserves a smile and thank you.
 
Jerry
P.S. We’re in trouble if we think a customer is wasting our time!

Please post your experience here in this thread after the event. Many have been reading and would like to know how it all turns out. Also the info contained will help others down the road.