Festival Foods? Baked Goods??? Ice cream? where are they??

Good evening everyone,
As you might recall I am diligently working on starting my festival business. I have been going to countless festivals and taking a ton of notes (mostly mental that I quickly write down when I get to a stopping point). I have talked to quite a few of the people/vendors at the festivals, very nice and helpful most of them are!!!
 
I am noticing that there is not a lot of vendors that sell baked goods or ice cream? Why is that? What am I missing? :) 
 
I did see a couple festivals that had one VERY HUGE ice cream vendor that had a complete trailer set up with soft serve etc...and their line never ended! :)  But was surprised to not see more ice cream options at the festivals.
 
Also, I have yet to see a single baked goods vendor....
Any of you with more knowledge and experience at this than me wish to add some input here :)
 
 

You will see Elephant ears, Frozen bananas, Chocolate dipped Ice cream bars, waffle cones, funnel cakes with berry topping with whipped cream, deep fried candy bars,and so on...............In many cases people go to the fairs for main entree kind of food, BBQ ribs, BBq pork sands, Sausage and pepper, Pizza and so on.............The kids go for the fried dessert items and the adults stick with other small bites of whatever the kids have. I like the idea of dipped vanilla bars rolled in chocolate that forms a hard shell, there may be some new ideas now a days with different flavors and different toppings that you roll the bar into, another idea is Chocolate dipped Key lime pie, check out the Post by BillyBoy on a restaurant in NYC that sell these, they look great,,,,,,,,,,.The best...........  BillyB

Hey BillyB,
Thanks for the response. You are right I saw a ton of really awesome looking foods like: elephant ears, funnel cakes, deep fried everything! Of course, I am tasting a bunch of it to see whats what :)  Okay maybe it just looks good and I have to try it, haha. :)
Oh and there was thing on vendor making funnel cakes with a bunch of fresh cut berries/bananas and whip cream it was awesome!!!
The only waffle cone things I have come across are: powder sugar covered bites of waffle cone, and ice cream in a waffle cone.  Haven't seen the chocolate dipped ice cream bars?
 
Besides your standard fair food like you mentioned, I have seen a surprising number of hand made pretzel vendors and pizza!
 
I don't want to do anything fried or meat anything, I am a vegetarian :) I know I know! But I can't cook what I don't eat right!?! 
I have been really surprised not to find vendors with homemade desserts/bake goods...you know like cheesecake, cakes, pies, etc....
 
off to find the chocolate dipped key lime pie link :) thanks

Hi Snow, look up Hot Molasadas in Hawaii, they make a killing in Hawaii and at all fairs. Deep fried dough rolled in cinnamon and sugar............Bill

snowangelhp


I have been really surprised not to find vendors with homemade desserts/bake goods...you know like cheesecake, cakes, pies, etc....

This may be a situation that is due to the local HD regulations.  Unless you do your baking at the festival itself, the HD may not approve unless you are using a HD-inspected-and-approved kitchen to do it (generally not possible with a home-based kitchen*), a hassle most vendors don't want to deal with unless they are already associated with a b&m).  Cheesecake and cream-type pies are also a HD "no-no" almost everywhere unless you have HD-approved refrigeration for storage and display.
 
*NOTE: Among other things, this means there can be absolutely no pets in the home, only commercial-grade appliances used, all the various requirements for a restaurant, regular inspections and fees, etc.

Home baked goods are not a big part of festivals anymore. Showing my age. Most that I have seen are at farmer markets on the weekends. Flea markets sre big also. If I had a young family and wanted a bread you
baked would I cart this around all day. Ohio has a domestic kitchen license. Baked good sales are a real treat, but they have there place. Here at festivals and such Ice Cream Bars and DOTS do very well. Fried dough of any type and Sausages.
Seen alot of people start small at flea markets with breads and cakes and moved to B&M'S.
AL. just started there Domestic Kitchens Lic. for baked goods only to sell at Farmers Markets and Flea markets.

Baked goods here in MI are still considered hazardous food, you must have a commercial kitchen to prepare in as others have said. They did pass a cottage law that allows people to sell things like caramel corn and such without a HD license. As far as a kitchen, my neighbor built one for his wife who owns her own catering company. He converted his single car attached garage into the kitchen. It took months to get the permitting to start, new septic fields, separate tanks, new well, covered carport area off of the kitchen, etc. They had him jumping through the hoops, and it took about a good year to complete the job and I would say around 6 figures was spent after all was said and done.

Thanks for all the replies. I can see how that makes sense, seeing that for a festival you want to get in do your thing and get out, having to job through all those hoops would certainly be a huge time factor--and apparently expense!!
 
Ohio has the cottage law but it only applies to foods that are not hazardous and doesn't require any refrigeration or freezing etc.