My experience at Cafe Fest 2014

I could have spend my weekend happily. But if you had watched and read the news for the last few days, you would have know that most patrons left Cafe Fest with much disappointment and anger.

If you would like to know what had happened, you can read their facebook here.  

Cafe Fest Singapore 2014

Take a look a the website .

The purpose of Cafe Fest was to bring cafes together so that hipsters like us could save our trips going down to individual cafes.  12 participating cafes would be displaying and selling their signature foods and coffee at the fest for patrons to enjoy the best of the best. People who purchased the tickets would be able to buy foods from the vendors at a lower price for 2 days. Though its open to public, they were able to attend but they were not entitled to purchase those foods.

Taken from their website

I wasn't really interested in those free Uber rides, entertainment and games. Neither was i interested in their voucher notebook. All i wanted was to have a taste of those foods and coffees which were offering to pass holders. Wouldn't you feel cool to visit 12 cafes in a go? It would really save you time and money right? 

In fact i had actually bought 2 tickets of regular passes 1 month ago when i knew about the event. I had wanted to buy the VIP passes but it was already sold out long time ago. Never before i had been looking forward to any event. They had great advertising campaign on this: Saw their news on various social media like Yahoo! I-S Singapore Online,  8 Days, Lian He Zao Bao etc. Imagine the wide scale of advertisement they had. "It must be a big event" ... ...  I thought to myself.

On 6th September, I was so ever-ready to go to the event. As i slept till late, Xiong and I decided to head down at about 12pm. They had only opened at 10am so i was not very late. There were lots of people walking about. I took my e-tickets to the registration counter. They gave each of us a paper bag and chopped our hands before we enter the event. 

I felt something was not right when i saw the scale of the place. I could easily glance the whole event from my position. But anyway,  we just entered. 

The direction pole is just located right in between the path. 

We began our breakfast with Pats and Stick's homemade ice cream.

They were selling $6.90 for one but i must have to say that they were really good! I ordered double chocolate and it never failed me. The ice cream was really thick so as the cookie. Definitely a great dessert to end your meal. 

Up next, we hopped over to Tiong Bahru Bakery. From Xiong, i heard that they were famous for their croissant. So we bought one to try.  

$3 , discounted from $4

As a regular pass holder, i get to enjoy the festive prices.

The croissant was good but it could have been better if it was fresh from the oven. Also, most of the other foods were already sold out. We wanted to order others but we couldn't.

They were also offering ice cream mini croissant but we didn't try that. 

We were battling with the crowd and weather. Both of us were so sick and tired of queuing for the foods that we had almost wanted to leave. Nevertheless, we stayed on until we had filled up our stomachs. 

We walked over to Cake Love and see what they have to sell.

Bought this hot dog bun and a flavored bubblegum drink and we munched it right away. 

This is their list of foods and beverages for the day.

Suddenly realized i was charged  the public price of $10 instead of $8. 

During each hour, different vendors offered different menu or drink for patrons (based on the pamphlets). At 2pm, we saw that Toby's Estate was offering an exclusive movie promo drink for 等一个人咖啡, so we went over to check it out. 

Read about their specials

Queues were already formed when we were there. We lined in the queue, waiting for our orders to be taken. 

" Hi, what would you like?"

" I want the 等一个人咖啡promo drink. What is this drink?"

"Er... Its actually just a normal drink that you have to choose from their menu"

"Then why they have this  等一个人咖啡 in the pamphlets?"

"Er... They are just trying to be funny..."

After that.. we walked away.

Took a few more photos and off we left to MBS to blow aircon.

My whole experience lasted for a mere 2 hours, standing under the sun, queuing for foods which were already sold out and standing around eating our foods.

Im not here to say anything more since patrons had already bombarded Cafe Fest Facebook with hundreds of negative comments. All of us had made our points known to them on why the event was not a successful one.

After the event, Xiong and i went to TWG in MBS to enjoy our afternoon tea.

Paid $22++ for a nice cosy afternoon tea under fully air-conditioned area with a cup of Jasmine Tea, accompanied with muffin and scones and seats which i don't have to fight for. 

Went home and took photos of what we received in the paper bag.

Well, oh well, some of them were given water bottled but i did not have any. Everyone's paper bag was different.

The organizers could have done better at managing the crowd, vendors and public. I believed they had tried their best to make this event meaningful. After all, it is their first and major attempt to organised one. I doubt anyone would want to screw up on their first project.

But still,  I might give a pass to the next Cafe Fest if they were to have.  

Signing off here~!!