SLOW FOOD NATION ANNOUNCES 85,000 ATTENDEES AT LABOR DAY WEEKEND EVENT

Event to Continue in Other Cities

New Web Site Launched: CivilEats.com

San Francisco, CA (October 28, 2008)— Slow Food Nation today announced that after analyzing all post-event surveys, the total number of unique visitors to the event was over 85,000, an increase of 15,000 from the 60,000 originally estimated. The new analysis also shows that the Marketplace on Civic Center Plaza vendors made a total of 48,000 individual sales; that Californian family farmers sold $300,000 of food directly to the public during the event; and that sales from Slow on the Go vendors were $150,000. The event raised $45,000 through Slow Dinners for partner non-profit organizations in the Bay Area, including the Golden Gate Park’s Conservancy, Greenbelt Alliance, La Cocina, Community Alliance with Family Farmers, City Slicker Farms, and People’s Grocery.

Attendees represented 44 states and ten countries. A third of attendees came from the San Francisco Bay Area, three quarters from around California, and a quarter from outside the state of California. Ninety-two percent of the eighty unique ticketed events sold out. In the six months since going live, the Slow Food Nation web site has received 3,000,000 page views. During the same period, the blog has received over 50,000 visitors. Thanks to a collaboration with Fora.TV and Participant Media, the Slow Food Nation Food for Thought videos posted to the web site have been viewed by over 20,000 people, more than double the number who attended in person.

In the past six weeks since the event took place, Slow Food Nation’s organizational impact continues to grow:

  • The Victory Garden in front of San Francisco’s City Hall has been extended and supported by the City until December 6, 2008 and continued programming will take place there featuring performances and engaging a variety of community organizations;
  • Changemakers’ Day—a gathering of non-profit and business leaders—will become an annual event under the aegis of Slow Food Nation’s partner, Roots of Change;
  • The FoodDeclaration.org petition launched at the event has already gathered 6,000 signatures and is attracting 200 – 400 new signatories every day;
  • The Slow Food Nation Youth program has launched Eat-Ins.org, which has already held “potlucks with a purpose” based on the model pioneered during the event;
  • The Slow Food Rocks Music Festival—held in collaboration with event partner the Festival Network—will continue next year in some form at the same venue as the San Francisco Folk Festival on July 15, 2009;
  • The Slow Food Nation blog has evolved into a new forum for discussion at CivilEats.com;
  • The designers who developed the innovative built environment at Slow Food Nation are at work on a book about building community through design at the event; and
  • Slow Food Nation is in discussions with the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to mount an exhibit of the photographs, art and design of the event from December through April 2008.

Slow Food Nation today also announced that the next edition of the event will move to a new city. Following the inaugural Labor Day Weekend event, Slow Food Nation staff conducted interviews with the many people who collaborated to organize the event, including curators, designers, sponsors, vendors, farmers, food producers and community-based organizations. There was a general consensus that Slow Food Nation should reach beyond the Bay Area in the future so that it can best serve the nation’s growing food movement. Some of the cities currently being considered for the next edition of Slow Food Nation include Washington D.C., Chicago and Des Moines.

“The City of San Francisco was a natural choice for the first edition,” said Slow Food Nation Executive Director Anya Fernald, “But in order to become a true ‘Slow Food Nation,’ we must move event to regions where it can contribute even more to building a national food movement. I’m thrilled that we were able to set a precedent with this first event, and look forward to seeing it evolve as it moves around the United States. The next Slow Food Nation event should reflect the fabric and color of the community it serves – just as in the city of San Francisco, our event took on the shape of the city. The next event will do the same in the city it serves, and will build elements that reflect local food culture and community. The next event does not need to look or feel like the inaugural edition – it may take on a completely different scope based on the context of the community it serves.” Ms. Fernald has announced her resignation from Slow Food Nation, but will continue to support follow up from the event in San Francisco until the end of 2008.

Many of the staff, curators, vendors, sponsors and designers who participated in Slow Food Nation ’08 in San Francisco are eager to help advise future events in other cities. “We are proud of what Slow Food Nation accomplished in San Francisco, and look forward to developing next steps in the upcoming months,” said Josh Viertel, president of Slow Food USA. “Two things will guide our decisions about time and location for the future event: first, local voices–voices from community leaders, non-profits, farmers, activists, Slow Food members and practitioners in the food movement, and second, our desire to create the greatest change possible through the life of this event.”

About Slow Food Nation

Slow Food Nation is a subsidiary non-profit organization of Slow Food USA and part of the international Slow Food movement. It was created to organize the first-ever American collaborative gathering to unite the growing sustainable food movement and introduce thousands of people to food that is good, clean and fair through enjoyable, accessible and educational activities. Slow Food Nation is dedicated to creating a framework for deeper environmental connection to our food and aims to inspire and empower Americans to build a food system that is sustainable, healthy and delicious.

Press contact:
Naomi Starkman
Communications & Policy Director
naomi@slowfoodnation.org 917.539.3924-cell