What is your target audience?
Feast events tend to draw the non-fighters; the role-players and social players. This makes it slightly easier to entertain your event goers; they tend to amuse themselves. However, this does not mean you can sit back and make no effort to entertain your guests. A good feast will still strive to provide the players with enough diversions. That way if they are enjoying your diversions then they will remember the unique entertainment you provided and if it is not to their tastes they will still fall back to entertaining themselves. The key to remember here is that feasts are an opportunity to focus on character interactions.
While feasts are the bastion of the non-fighters that does not mean you can not throw a few tourneys for the fighters as well. As other people have noted in the past, even fighters like to role-play and socialize at times. Give them a chance to hit other people and they will stick around for the social aspects.
One thing that many feast-o-crats forget is that the players are not there for the food (despite what reviews may state). The food still has to be of acceptable quality and quantity, but the players are there for the social occasion. Months after the event ends the players won’t remember what you had for the second course (no matter how tasty it was), but they will remember an important character interaction. The tough part for a feast event holder is that you can not create character connections. All you can do is allow for and stimulate such interactions.
How will magic affect your event?
Very little. Many player and characters are defined by the spells and magic items they possess so they will be eager to registry them for a feast event even if there is no need for them. A person with an over-powered magic item can not disrupt you delivering food to the players but it can disrupt your feast if pvp breaks out (which is a real hazard at most feasts). Bear this in mind when accepting magic items.
How to Entertain at a Feast
As I have already mentioned, you want to entertain the players beyond simply providing food. With this you can add some combat and non-combat tourneys. One trick to this is to have the tourneys visible to your entire player base. You want these tourneys to be part of the entertainment. Hold those combat tourneys at the front of the hall by the head table, instead of out back behind the building. Create non-combat tourneys that allow the participants to show their stuff in front of everyone. A chess tourney in a back corner is only entertaining for the few people involved in it, but a bardic competition in front of everyone will attract attention. Give the players something to look at. If a particular tourney does not interest them personally then they will find their own amusement, but you need to provide them with options beyond them simply entertaining themselves.
Cost
Cost is one of the most important considerations when thinking about throwing a feast event. Feasts tend to be fairly expensive and out of all the other types of events, they are the most expensive to throw. When planning a feast you will have to balance cost of the event to you and the cost of the event for the players. You want to charge the players enough to make back what you are spending. A first time feast thrower should expect to lose money. You can mitigate some of this loss through meticulous planning. Here are a few things to consider in your planning process…
Money Log- Keep a running total of all your expenses and expected expenses. Try to factor in all your expected costs; site, food, decorations, etc. After coming up with an estimate of your costs balance that amount against your expected player count; estimate low on this count. From there you will need to figure out a price to charge the players that will cover all your costs. One system is to figure out all your costs (by using some of the following methods) long before you figure out the player price of admission. Wait as long as possible to figure out that player price so you have a better grasp on your costs.
Site Cost- Feast sites require a structure large enough to house the players along with a kitchen. These types of sites are more expensive than other types so it will likely be one of your highest costs. Research your site cost and expect it to eat a good chunk into your budget.
Scout the Food- Food prices can vary. Time of the year (turkeys are cheaper near Thanksgiving, strawberries in winter are more expensive, etc) can play a factor in food costs. So can where you buy them. Bulk shopping is the best way to go and for that there are special stores such as BJ’s, Costco and Sam’s Club that specialize in bulk food stuffs. Find one of these stores in your area and research their prices. Often they require a membership fee so your savings may be eaten up by that. One trick is to find someone who already has a membership at your local store and use theirs if they are willing to oblige you. The key here is to research the cost of your menu foods long before you need to buy them.
Preregistration- This is a double edged weapon. On one hand, requiring preregistrations will drive away players who do not decide to go your event until the last minute, i.e. after the preregistration deadline. On the other hand, preregistrations will give you a more accurate accounting of how many players will be in attendance and thus you will be better able budget your event. A few ways to handle this is to allow late comers to your event with the understanding that they will receive no food or a limited choice/quantity of food. Some event holders have given in character inceptives for preregistration. Personally I recommend requiring preregistration over not doing so.
What about the end of the event?
All good events have closure of some sort. Feasts are not exempt from this. Traditionally, the event holder will stumble out of the kitchen and thank the players for coming and then the event ends. You can do better than this. You have dessert. Close the event by releasing the dessert; people will leave your event with a sugar buzz, feeling happy.