Associate Producer - Live Events

Overview of Craft Hospitality

Craft Hospitality organizes over 20 food and beverage festivals annually across 10 cities, featuring events such as coffee, cocktail, wine, and beer festivals. They collaborate with more than 500 vendors, cater to over 25,000 attendees yearly, and partner with notable venues like the Philadelphia Zoo, Fort Mason in San Francisco, and Union Market in Washington, DC.

Role Summary

The Associate Producer will be deeply involved in producing these consumer-facing festivals from vendor recruitment, production, marketing, through day-of-event execution. This role is pivotal, as it requires managing multiple festivals simultaneously with autonomy and hands-on involvement. Within three months, the candidate should be able to lead a festival independently, and within one year, oversee a portfolio of 16-20 events in various production stages.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage the production of up to eight concurrent events, recruiting and onboarding exhibitors across multiple festival types.
• Confirm vendor participation, track required certifications and payments, coordinate with venues for logistics, and organize event staffing.
• Maintain close communication with 30-80 vendors per event via multiple channels to ensure timely submissions and compliance.
• During event week, coordinate all vendor and third-party logistics, ensuring all necessary services are confirmed.
• Serve as the primary onsite leader on event days, managing setup, vendor placement, problem-solving during unforeseen issues, and ensuring a positive experience for attendees.
• Perform post-event tasks such as vendor follow-ups, deposit management, and debriefs, while preparing for upcoming events.

Event Portfolio

Events cover various food and beverage categories across multiple cities and years, including coffee festivals (NYC, DC, San Diego, Philly, Austin, Seattle, SF, Dallas, Houston, LA), wine festivals (DC, Philly), cocktail festivals (DC, Philly, NYC, SF), and beer festivals (Philly). Each involves managing 30-80 vendors and thousands of attendees with venue coordination and operations support.

Candidate Profile

Ideal candidates will have 1-3 years experience actively producing live events (not just planning or marketing), especially large-scale festivals or similar attendee-facing productions. They should be well-versed in direct vendor management, weekend availability (with around 30-40% travel primarily on event weekends), and be highly organized in tracking multiple details and deadlines.

Strong communication skills, ability to prioritize and multitask, physical capability to manage onsite needs, and proficiency with tools like Google Sheets, Canva, and Eventbrite are essential. Preference is for candidates located on the US East Coast, particularly Philadelphia or DC metro areas.

Exclusions

This position is not suited for candidates who require significant supervision, are specialized in weddings, agency events, corporate conferences, or experiential marketing activations, or who prefer working within large layered teams with narrow responsibilities. The role demands stamina for long, demanding event days and weekends.

Benefits and Compensation

• Complete ownership of events with decision-making authority from the start.
• Mentorship directly from the company founder with extensive production experience.
• Access to all event types produced by the company.
• Position in a growing company expanding into new markets.
• Career resilience against automation due to the nature of interpersonal and logistical work.
• Competitive salary dependent on location and experience, ranging from $55,000 to $70,000 annually.
• Health insurance and remote work expense stipend.
• Paid time off and travel expenses covered.
• Flexible remote working environment.

Additional Information

This is a full-time W-2 employee role requiring weekend availability (events usually on Saturdays and Sundays, with load-ins on Fridays). Travel comprises approximately 30-40%, mostly during event weekends from March to May and late September to mid-November.

Applicants should submit a resume, a brief note describing their most complex event production experience highlighting how they solved issues, and their availability to start. The target start date is late August 2026. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis with immediate interview scheduling for qualified candidates.