Introduction
The Latin American Empanadas Festival of Berlin is a multi venue Latin American food event in Berlin, created and organized by Lado|B|erlin under the leadership of Manuel Sierra Alonso. It launched during the pandemic in 2020 and evolved into a repeatable annual format with international press coverage and scalable growth, reaching its 5th edition in 2025.
The challenge
Berlin has a strong Latin American food scene, but it is fragmented. Independent venues have limited marketing bandwidth, and discovery is scattered. The challenge was to create city wide visibility without adding operational burden to restaurants.
The solution
A decentralized festival format hosted inside participating restaurants. One shared concept, one public map, and a simple, audience friendly offer guideline that makes participation easy for venues and easy to understand for visitors.
The implementation
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Built a repeatable edition format and participation rules
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Onboarded restaurants across multiple districts
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Produced the official map and printed materials
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Ran social promotion and press outreach
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Added partner activations in specific editions (for example official beer partner and a contest mechanic)
Impact
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5 editions
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7 restaurants in the first year, doubled the following year
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19 restaurants in 2022
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Countries represented across editions include Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Paraguay, and Venezuela
Reach and distribution snapshot
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46,517 accounts reached (event publication)
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7,498 accounts reached (Instagram event poster)
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80,000+ reach and 1,294 engagements (2020 campaign)
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3,000 printed brochures (A6)
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12,000+ Facebook followers
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Press featured in outlets including Deutsche Welle (Germany), Berlin.de (Germany), Berlino Magazine (Germany), Mit Vergnügen (Germany), Página 12 (Argentina), and Vorterix (Argentina)
Conclusion and learning
Empanadas Festival started as a way to help people discover small venues when the city felt closed. What surprised me was not the idea, it was the response. When you remove friction for restaurants and make the experience simple for visitors, the format becomes bigger than a one off campaign.
The result was not only growth in venues, reach, and sales across editions. It was a repeatable mechanism that restaurants could trust because it respected their reality. Clear rules, clear promotion, and a shared discovery layer. That is the kind of structure that turns community energy into measurable outcomes.