An Update On Sophie's Street Feast 2024

It’s been just over a month since Toybox and I hosted the second Sophie’s Street Feast. On Sunday 22nd September, we returned to Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre for a day filled with incredible street food, live music and raising awareness and funds for Toybox and YMCA Milton Keynes. This year, we were not lucky with the weather however, after a night of torrential rain, it eased at around 9:30am, just in time for visitors to arrive at 11am. Somehow, the rain kept off for the majority of the event and didn’t amount to more than a shower. If you came to Sophie’s Street Feast last year, you might remember how hot it was! The great British weather never fails to test us. The weather did not dampen your spirits though – We still had an incredible event, some of the vendors managed to sell out.

Here’s a little round-up of how the event went, how much money we raised and our date for next year…

Huge thank you to Oomph Creative for the photos!

I’ll begin by saying that we took on board every single piece of feedback you shared with us last year so we could improve Street Feast. Last year, parking and queuing were key issues but we managed to combat both of those issues this year. The weather did put some people off coming sadly BUT we were so proud reading through this year’s feedback because it was so apparent we had worked hard to improve the event – And it showed! Running big events like this is not for the faint-hearted – There is so much to consider, but we really levelled it all up and it worked!

This year, we had a brand new layout and took the festival to the back of Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre. We had an incredible stretch tent by The Stretch Tent Company (essential for shelter this year!) where people could sit, grab a drink from Papi’s Cocktails and listen to live music on the Yamaha Stage. Our line up featured: Bop State, Ernest Herb, Rory O’Kane and Tom Heasman & Philippa Steel who were all INCREDIBLE. We are so grateful to them for donating their time and they had a blast!

Saf’s Kitchen, Good Times Café, Oh My Cakery and Baja Cantina were out the back and the queues did not stop all day. Saf’s Pakora Hut got some real love on the day and sold out very quickly.

In the car park of MK City Discovery Centre, we had our DJ sets throughout the day, our charities and more vendors. A huge shout out to Demi from Diva D Entertainment, Paul Viccars and The Riaz for joining us at short notice and donating their time to the event. The vibes were on point!

Lime Face, Chouxly Scrumptious, King’s Comfort Food, Fold Me Close, Willen Ice Cream Co., Now Now South African Food, Milk & Beans, Howe & Co. Fish & Chips, Amani Kitchen, JW Event Cart and Papi’s Cocktails were all out the front and thankfully the rain kept off for long enough for people to enjoy their food outside. Our vendors were amazing and some had created specials for the event with proceeds supporting our charities. A special mention to Carlo from Milk & Beans who sourced a Kenyan coffee for the day. Toybox have been working with its partners in Kenya to rebuild street children’s lives after the flood, so this was particularly poignant this year.

The Discovery Centre Bar was serving our amazing Street Feast Pilsner by Roman Way Brewery. It was great seeing people enjoy this in our ‘I Love Milton Keynes’ cups, designed by Spinks Creative. They featured key landmarks in MK and were so fun! These were £1 each and could be reused to save plastic waste. Our cups were sponsored by PRC and all proceeds went to Toybox and YMCA Milton Keynes.

Our volunteers throughout the day were amazing too! You might have spotted them in their bright pink T-shirts sponsored by Indi Local.

In addition to Toybox, Sophie’s Street Feast 2024 supported YMCA Milton Keynes. Each charity had a tent this year, which meant that visitors could find out more about how their support was helping young people not just in Milton Keynes, but around the world. Toybox had created a Nature Trail in collaboration with The Mindful Mama Club that children could enjoy. They also had these amazing tote bags to match the cups!

YMCA Milton Keynes launched their SoupFest book in time for Sophie’s Street Feast so visitors could be the first to get their hands on the book, which is packed with delicious soup recipes from around the world.

So how much did we raise?

We are SO proud to say that this year, we nearly DOUBLED how much we raised! Just over £3000 will be going to support the work of Toybox and YMCA Milton Keynes. A huge thank you to everyone who came along to the event (despite the weather!), our sponsors and our vendors. We are so grateful and we couldn’t have done it without you!