Visa Wellington on a plate guidelines 2026

Festival Events cover both ticketed events and free entry or a pay on consumption event.

Top Level Criteria

• Your event must be unique and created exclusively for Visa Wellington On a Plate.
• Change things up - repeated events, events not displaying creativity and/or a unique angle may be turned down to allow room for new programming.
• Know what your unique selling point is.
• One-off, extraordinary experiences will be chosen rather than events that are on offer at your venue at any other time of year.

Your application must have at least one high resolution and high quality landscape image that can be used across promotional materials, digital channels, and media. We do not accept logos or posters with text.

• Image quality: At least 1200x900 px (4:3 ratio), 300 dpi, no more than 10mb
• Image format: Landscape/Horizontal ratio only (portrait images will not be accepted as they will be cropped by the website and detail lost)

As well as an engaging image, naming your event well and succinctly is really important.

• Please do not mention the name of your restaurant/venue in the Event name, as this will be displayed alongside your event listing on the website. For example: “Carmy's Christmas at The Bear” will be changed to "Carmy's Christmas"
• Event names should not be a direct description of the event
• Event names cannot be offensive or off-putting

Venues participating in the Festival must use the iTICKET ticketing platform. For more information on iTICKET fees head here. We reserve the right to accept or decline any applications. If we decline your application, we will give feedback on why and the opportunity to resubmit. Note that applications that do not meet minimum information and photography requirements will be declined.

Full Event Terms and Conditions

Head here to read the full terms and conditions for 2026

Event Inspiration

Need event inspiration? Head here for events that have done well in previous years

How to Price Your Event

For a full run down on the Ticketing mechanics and how to head here

Burger Wellington gets the whole region discovering, planning, discussing, debating and eating together. It’s the shared experience that creates the office chatter, banter on the dedicated Facebook group and fierce group chats.  None more fierce than the debate of what officially makes something a burger (we’re pretty loose here, and we just say it needs to be between two buns). People are often on one side of the burger loving camp. Some consumers want creativity, linking to the theme and slightly out of the box burgers, and others want to try the best of the classic styles. And look, we’re not here to yuck anyone’s yum, so we think either side is a tasty one, just as long as we’re all enjoying ourselves at the same time!

Top Level Criteria

• You must use locally grown ingredients or products made in the Wellington region so include these in your description - and tell us about any housemade or foraged items in your dish also.
• Use of the 2026 Theme “Word of Mouth” is highly encouraged. Use of theme will be taken into account during the final judging process.
• Your entry must be created exclusively for Visa Wellington On a Plate 2026 and different to your regular offering, other Burger competitions or previous Visa Wellington On a Plate offerings. This will be audited.
• You can only start selling your burger from the start of Burger Wellington (Monday 3rd August). Those selling before Monday 3rd August will be disqualified from the public rating process. You are more than welcome to sell your Burger Wellington after the festival.
• Your entry should showcase the creativity and innovation of your establishment and generally be of a high standard. 
• You are invited to offer a Double Vision Brewing beer match for your burger with either the exclusively brewed beers for 2026 or existing Double Vision Brewing beers (see below).
• As the brewery partner of Burger Wellington, only Double Vision Brewing beers may be used as a beverage match for Burger Wellington.
• All beer matches used for promotional activity must use one of the nominated Double Vision Brewery beers listed in the guidelines (see below).
• Promotional activity includes social media, website promotion, email marketing and any paid media.
• Any participant promoting a beverage match with any other beer or beverage will be disqualified from the competition.
• Food trucks/pop up kitchens that are using a venue (such as a bar) as a base during the festival must submit their application as the food truck/pop up kitchen, and will be treated/rated as the food truck/pop up kitchen, not the venue.
• No use or play on words of any major burger chain trademarks - for example ‘Mc’ or ‘MAC’, ‘Whopper’ or ‘Zinger’. In the past restaurants have received legal cease and desist letters from major corporations.
• You agree to the Visa Wellington On a Plate 2026 waste minimisation and sustainability requirements: No single use plastics are used as part of your offering and compostable or sustainable packaging is used for any takeaways
• You must upload a high-resolution LANDSCAPE image on application and the image must represent the product that you will be serving. This image can be updated at any time. AI images will not be accepted (more on AI guidelines in the photography selection below).
• No racist, sexist, misogynistic, offensive names, or swear words in your entry will be accepted. We take a fun but family-friendly approach to names and puns.
• Loyalty card/discount cards may be used at your discretion, but are not encouraged.

2026 Burger Terms and Conditions

Full terms and conditions including cancellation policies can be found here.

Insider Tips

If you’re after more tips on how to make your burger stand out from the crowd head here for our insider tips

DOUBLE VISION BREWING Beer matches

The Visa Wellington On a Plate Festival Awards will be announced on Tuesday 1 September.

Awards given for both Burgers and Events:

• Best Use of Theme - Burger Wellington
• Best Use of Theme - Festival Event
• Most Innovative - Burger Wellington
• Most Innovative - Festival Event

Regional Burger Wellington Awards:

• Hutt City
• Kāpiti
• Porirua
• Upper Hutt
• Wairarapa

*(these are chosen on the public vote and not judged individually)

Burger Wellington Awards:

• 3rd Place - Burger Wellington
• 2nd Place - Burger Wellington
• Winner of Burger Wellington

Judging process: The winner of Best Use of Theme and Most Innovative is selected by a judging panel. The regional Burger Wellington Winners and the five finalists will be selected through a public ratings process (public can score the burger out of 10 on the website). The top 5 highest rated entries are then subject to a judging process, where we send five judges out to the five finalists.  The judging criteria covers - Taste, Presentation, Ingredients, Theme and Innovation. This is not a popularity contest whereby the most votes wins. The rating process is out of 10 and reflects quality and experiences of entries. We carefully audit all ratings for fraudulent behaviour (such as rating low competitors, or staff self rating) and will actively exclude entries from the competition if we see this occurring.

HOW TO APPLY