S&N: Tiger Chilli Crab Tour

Sep 08, 2009 by Beth Wallach

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Background

For three years Brick Lane has played host to the Tiger Chilli Crab Festival – a weekend-long party held in August where Singaporean brewed Tiger Beer is served alongside Chilli Crab, the unofficial national dish of Singapore.

The Brief

With the Scottish and Newcastle brewery taking on the Tiger mantle in 2009, we were given the challenge of developing the Tiger Chilli Crab Festival to the next level by taking the existing concept on tour to cities across the UK during August – incorporating Glasgow and Brighton and finishing up back in London’s East End.

Our Approach

Embracing Tiger’s ethos of bringing Eastern culture to the West, we brought compelling events to each of these key cities. We married the best authentic Far Eastern restaurateurs with curators who would bring in talent from each city’s arts scene. Each event was hosted at a prominent venue with outside space where guests could relax and enjoy the food, the beer, the music and even some live street art.

To put the festival on wheels, we needed a suitable vehicle to travel around the UK from which we could show off the culinary skills needed to create the Chilli Crab dish. The solution came in the form of a 1964 vintage Citreon H van, which we customised especially for the tour, branding it with Tiger artwork. The van was parked outside each event and used as a base from which to both cook and serve Chilli Crab to guests.

The Journey

First stop on our journey was Oran Mor, a grand converted church in the heart of Glasgow’s West End which is now a cultural hub playing host to gigs, plays and other events. Local Pan-Asian restaurant Café Mao served up Chilli Crab to an eclectic soundtrack provided by Chris ‘Beans’ Geddes of Belle and Sebastian, Andy Divine (The Art School) and Chris Moogroove (Recon Project). The event was curated by Glasgow-based artist Mutley, the man responsible for running a set of open plan artist studios in Glasgow’s city centre known as the Studio Warehouse.

Secondly we headed from Scotland right to the Southern coast to enjoy a weekend based at the Honey Club on Brighton Beach, with food provided by Asian fine-dining restaurateurs Awana. The event was curated by Brighton’s iconic Skint label’s Laura Kelly, and featured the likes of Hereldeduke and local party organisers Schtumm DJs as well as Tiger-themed live graffiti art from street artist Odisy.

The final August dates of the tour took place at The Big Chill Bar and featured a stellar line up including Ashley Beedle, Danni Moore of Crazy P, Reverso 68 and East End favourites The Hackney Players Association, brought together by purveyors of the London disco scene The Cosmic Truth.

Results

Over the three weekends over 4,000 guests attended the events. Over 6,000 bottles and 2,300 pints of Tiger Beer were enjoyed with 2,000 servings of Chilli Crab. Plus we were featured in key regional media with a total of 39 pieces of coverage and a reach of 60,128,168.