Eat to the Beat was honoured to return to the Royal Albert Hall this November for the Festival of Remembrance 2024. Working alongside the BBC Studio events team and the British Royal Legion the team was busy behind the scenes dishing up more than 4000 meals during the three days they were onsite.
This year’s show was presented by Adrian Lester and featured performances from Tom Jones, Jack Savoretti, Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, Samanatha Barks, Alexandra Burke and Jake Isaac. Whilst the VIP guest list included His Majesty King Charles III, the Prince and Princess of Wales and the Princess Royal.
This year’s event celebrated the remarkable men and women who fought in World War II in 1944. To mark this 80th anniversary, it commemorated those who fought on D-Day and in the Normandy campaign, in Italy at Monte Cassino and Kohima, and Imphal in East Asia, and welcomed many of these veterans into the Royal Albert Hall.
We ensured that the production team, crew, police, military personnel and performers were fuelled throughout the build, rehearsals and show. With the large numbers involved, particularly on show day, we create a kitchen and dining room in the Royal Albert Hall’s loading bay which in itself is unique to this event.
Given the royalty and dignitaries in attendance, security was paramount, and the accreditation process added an additional layer of complexity to the delivery of the event but nothing that our experienced operations team couldn’t handle.
Sustainability is a primary consideration for all BBC Studios productions, so we worked closely with the events team to curate menus that included no beef and were geared towards delicious vegan and vegetarian options, using our nudging tactics on menu boards to encourage diners to opt for them. We also tracked the carbon footprint of every dish and detailed the CO₂ emissions of the meals we served on our menu boards. To reduce waste, we partnered with Olio to distribute any uneaten meals. We had a dedicated team member who ensured everything was labelled and packaged correctly, liaised with Olio and then the food was hot boxed to them for distribution.
