Official UK procurement notice
Food Festival Curator — UK public procurement notice
Authority: Durham County Council (Local council)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionDurham County Council seeks to appoint a supplier to provide curator services for the Bishop Auckland and Seaham Food Festivals 2027.
Working with the Council's festival team and partners, the provider will support the planning, development and delivery of both festivals.
Services will include festival programming, trader and exhibitor recruitment, performer and activity bookings, marketing support, commercial development, sponsorship opportunities and onsite event delivery.
The supplier will assist in developing programmes aligned to agreed objectives and budgets, including year-round activity; recruit and manage traders, exhibitors and performers; support sponsorship and income generation; contribute to marketing, including development of a refreshed festival brand linked to Visit County Durham; engage with stakeholders and community organisations; support event operations; and provide progress reports, budget monitoring and post-event evaluation.
CPV: Event services · Festival organisation services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · value publishedLot #1Lot 1RenewalPublished value£80,000
- Value
- £80,000 exc. VAT · £88,000 inc. VAT
- Extensions
- The proposed contract is to be let with an option to extend for a further 2 periods of 12 months from the actual end date.
What it takes to wini
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Evaluation split and conditions of participation as published — the tender pack may add morei
How this buyer will score bids.
The evaluation criteria and weights exactly as published on the notice, grouped by family (price, quality, social value and so on).
Published sub-criteria (3)
- Technical Questions — 60%
- Price — 30%
- Social Value — 10%
No conditions of participation were published on the notice; check the tender documents.
Competition analysis · published record, not a forecast of who will bid
How Durham County Council buys Exhibition, fair and congress organisation services (CPV 7995) — and who usually turns up
Durham County Council’s own published record, next to the North East England market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Exhibition, fair and congress organisation services (CPV 7995) →
How the contest usually goes
Left: this authority. Right: the market where the work is delivered. Bids and award-vs-estimate pairs are per lot, from contested contracts only — direct awards (including PA 2023 transparency notices) report one bid by definition and are left out. On Procurement Act 2023 notices the count is the tenders assessed at the final stage, not every submission received; pairs compare like with like (VAT-exclusive, or VAT-inclusive on both sides). Empty means nothing was published, not filled in from elsewhere.
Durham County Council
contract notices in 36 months: 2 in CPV 7995 (1 without competition) · 26 in division 79 (4 without competition · 3 route not published) · 159 in all categories (24 without competition · 42 route not published)
i
How many companies usually bid for work like this.
Middle value of published bid counts, one per lot, for this buyer or this region in the same sector.
Based on this buyer’s tenders in this industry (CPV 79), last 36 months: 9 lots. 6 lots are from Procurement Act 2023 notices (bids assessed, middle 7) and 3 from older notices (bids received, middle 5).
Nothing is filled in from UK-wide numbers. An empty tile means nothing usable was published.
i
How often only one company bid.
Share of lots that received exactly one bid, on the same competitions as the bids figure.
Based on this buyer’s tenders in this industry (CPV 79), last 36 months: 9 lots.
High means a thin market or an incumbent that is hard to beat.
i
Do awards for work like this land above or below the estimate.
Estimate against award per lot, for this buyer or this region in the same sector.
Based on this buyer’s tenders in this industry (CPV 79), last 36 months: 7 pairs.
A past pattern, not a price to bid.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the deadline to the first award notice, on competitions that published both dates.
Based on this buyer’s tenders in this industry (CPV 79), last 36 months: 4 notices.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
i
How often this buyer changes a notice after publishing it.
Middle number of amendments per notice. Deadline extensions and corrections both count.
Based on this buyer’s tenders in all categories, last 24 months: 404 notices.
i
How often this buyer awards without a competition.
Direct or limited awards as a share of its notices that say which procedure was used. These routes are legal in defined cases. This is just the record.
Based on this buyer’s tenders in this industry (CPV 79), last 36 months: 23 notices.
North East England · Exhibition, fair and congress organisation services (CPV 7995)
contract notices delivered in North East England in 36 months: 25 in CPV 7995 (23 competed) · 588 in division 79 (367 competed, 107 route not published)
i
How many companies usually bid for work like this.
Middle value of published bid counts, one per lot, for this buyer or this region in the same sector.
Based on this region’s tenders in this sector (CPV 7995), last 36 months: 8 lots. 7 lots are from Procurement Act 2023 notices (bids assessed, middle 4) and 1 from older notices (bids received, middle 4).
Nothing is filled in from UK-wide numbers. An empty tile means nothing usable was published.
i
How often only one company bid.
Share of lots that received exactly one bid, on the same competitions as the bids figure.
Based on this region’s tenders in this sector (CPV 7995), last 36 months: 8 lots.
High means a thin market or an incumbent that is hard to beat.
i
Do awards for work like this land above or below the estimate.
Estimate against award per lot, for this buyer or this region in the same sector.
Based on this region’s tenders in this sector (CPV 7995), last 36 months: 9 pairs.
A past pattern, not a price to bid.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the deadline to the first award notice, on competitions that published both dates.
Based on this region’s tenders in this sector (CPV 7995), last 36 months: 7 notices.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
i
How much of this market goes to small and medium firms.
SME bidders where buyers published the split, otherwise SME winners.
Based on this region’s tenders in this sector (CPV 7995), last 36 months: 7 lots.
i
How much work like this goes to companies based in the delivery region.
Awards in this category delivered here where the winner’s registered address is in the region.
Based on this region’s tenders in this sector (CPV 7995), last 36 months: 13 awards.
Registered address, so a national firm with a local branch counts as outside.
i
Where this tender’s estimate would land if the usual pattern repeats.
We apply the buyer’s usual movement between estimate and award (or the region’s) to the estimate on this notice.
Based on this buyer’s own usual movement over 7 lots (division 79), applied to the £80,000 estimate on this notice.
A benchmark, not a price to bid.
Coverage and what to read with care
- Each tile explains itself. The on a figure says what it is, how it is counted and which scope this notice’s own record came from (class, division, all categories, or the authority’s 24-month row). The two columns are never blended and nothing is filled from a UK-wide figure; an empty tile means the source published nothing usable. Long form: Methodology.
- Coverage. Roughly 40 % of notices publish a bid count; about half publish an ITL1 delivery location, so the market column reads the authority’s registered region when the notice has none (labelled). About 30 % of award-vs-estimate pairs are exact matches — the buyer published the award at the estimate. n is on every figure; a thin sample is muted, never hidden.
- “Match” and “relevance” are model scores from the nightly matcher, not published facts. Find a Tender does not publish who is bidding. Never shown: contact details, payment behaviour, or a recommended price.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Procedure method
- Open procedure
- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Open for tender
- Procurement threshold
- Above threshold (FTS publication)
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- No (one-off requirement)
- First published
- 25 Sept 2026, 10:31 BST
- Last source update
- 25 Sept 2026, 10:31 BST
- Award evaluation window
- Submission end — 29 Oct 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Latest notice
- Tender notice (UK4)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-077a38Find a Tender
How to participate & submission route
Official notice Submit via portal- Expression of interest (EOI)
- —
- Tender submission deadline
- 23 Oct 2026, 10:00 BST
- Clarification deadline
- 21 Oct 2026, 12:00 BST
- Submission channel
- Official e-sourcing portal
- Electronic submission
- Allowed
- Accepted languages
- en
Timeline
5 published dates · Europe/London- Tender notice publishedjust passed25 Sept 2026, 10:31 BST
- Clarification questions byin 26 days21 Oct 2026, 12:00 BST
- Submission deadlinein 28 days23 Oct 2026, 10:00 BST
- Award decision expected byin 35 days29 Oct 2026, 23:59 GMT
- Contract startsin 38 days2 Nov 2026, 00:00 GMT
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Nothing awarded yet- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Tender notice published25 Sept 2026, 10:31 BSTUK4
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (2)
Official links; attachments are not copiedTender pack and attachments
- Conflict of interest declarationNot published
Notices published for this procedure
- Tender notice Tender notice on Find a Tender