The festival – in support of grocery industry charity GroceryAid – will take place on Thursday 7 July 2022 with music acts, street food, a variety of bars to suit all tastes, new product launches and entertainment all included with entry.
Barcode Festival will return to The Magazine in London, offering more than 4,500 members of the grocery industry the chance to come together, relax and celebrate their achievements.
£900k fundraiser
This year will see the festival attempt to raise more than £900,000 towards supporting grocery colleagues in need with emotional, practical and financial support.
The event went on hiatus in 2020 due to lockdown restrictions, but came back in full force last year at the even bigger venue.
Speaking to Food Manufacture last year, Grocery Aid chief executive Steve Barnes said: “We created barcode as the first festival in the B2B sector as a unique event in the industry calendar, something very different to attract younger colleagues so they can go on a journey with Grocery Aid throughout their working career.
In demand
“I think the proof is in the pudding. We sold this [2021] event out – which is twice the size of the previous event – six months before we were due to run it originally July. There’s demand there.”
Commenting on the unusually sociable nature of the food and drink industry, Barnes said the absence of Barcode in 2020 was felt particularly hard.
“There’s only really one common cause around competing companies can coalesce and that is Grocery Aid, because they all realise the investment they are making to support these events and give their colleagues a great time and have some fun ultimately goes to support colleagues in need.”
GroceryAid, the trading name of the National Grocers Benevolent Fund, is the charity for the grocery industry. It has been providing emotional, practical and financial support for members of the industry since 1857.