MEMBERS NEWS

Hampshire Street Food Awards

Hampshire Street Food Awards hosted its first Big Eat event in June 2022, welcoming nearly 50 of Hampshire’s finest street vendors to its inaugural foodie festival for charity.

For the first time, Royal Victoria Country park in Netley, Southampton, was filled with street food vendors from across the south in a celebration of local food and talent with all the profits being donated to four local charities; Hound Basics Food Bank, Motiv8, Tonic and Music Fusion.

The free-to-attend festival fed nearly 8,000 visitors and the hugely popular event is set to return in September 2023.

The festival hosted a huge variety of street vendors including Gemma the Cookie Queen, FriesLove, and Arty-Stan Pizza, as well as live music, bands, fairground rides, a petting zoo and performances.

All winners were crowned by a panel of expert judges including MasterChef semi-finalist Luke Bryan, Britain’s Best Home Cook quarter finalist Katie Davies and ITV’s Britain’s Best Dish Susie Carter.

The overall winning vendor of the Big Eat festival was Down D’Islands which produces delicious and traditional Trinidadian food.

Event organiser Jeremy Gaskin, from Hamble, said: “The Big Eat was an absolutely fantastic event, it couldn’t have gone better. I was thrilled with the number of people that came along, showed their support and tucked in to some great food.

“The Big Eat allowed the community to connect and celebrate outstanding Hampshire street food, all while raising money for local charities. The wide range of award categories aimed to recognise and appreciate the amazing range of food we have right on our doorstep.

“We are excited to announce that the Big Eat will be returning bigger than before on the 8th-10th September 2023.”

Jeremy set up the Hampshire Street Food Awards in 2019 with the goal to celebrate and reward all of the hard work that goes on in Hampshire.

KENDAL MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL – SHARE THE ADVENTURE

INCLUDING D/DEAF & DISABLED AUDIENCES

Kendal Mountain Festival is a platform for inspiration, discovery and connection. Taking place in November, audiences meet in Kendal to enjoy a packed weekend of films and live shows with some of the biggest names in the world of outdoor adventure. This year the Festival sold over 25,000 tickets and our free Basecamp talks were more popular than ever. Whilst the figures are exciting and show that more people are interested in and engaging with the outdoors, we also want to ensure our content is reaching diverse audiences and that the Festival is accessible and welcoming to d/Deaf and disabled audiences.

One way we have sought to increase accessibility is through the development of our online programme. After the decision to cancel the live Festival in 2020 due to Covid-19, Kendal presented a spectacular Online

Festival in its stead. As a result we created the Festival Player which allows audiences to watch our legendary live events plus a wide selection of films on-demand. The Player is now an essential part of our programmingperfect for those wishing to catch up on missed content or tune in from the comfort of home.

One of our most memorable events this year featured Manni and Reuben Coe who joined us on stage with their book, ‘brother. do. you. love. me’. Reuben, who has down syndrome, had been living in a home providing specialised care and was cut off from his family. In despair, he sent his brother a text message. Immediately, Manni took Reuben out of care and moved them to a cottage in the countryside. After the Festival the team got together to review the weekend and we could not stop talking about this event. We have since decided to make this session free on the Player to increase outreach and, as Reuben says, “make everyone and world emotional.”

Whilst the Player is a great asset to our programming, we also want to ensure that our live events are accessible for those who do want to attend. For the first time this year we presented ‘Access The Best Of Kendal’ which screened a selection of our most groundbreaking films with open captions, audio description and a selection with on screen BSL translation. To further bridge the gap between the d/Deaf community and the outdoor industry, we will encourage open captions for all future films and further develop our ‘Best Of’ screenings.

After each Festival we review feedback and look for ways to improve. Alongside increasing outreach online, developing the ‘Best Of’ collection and continuing to ensure venue accessibility, we also need to increase accessibility for neurodivergent audiences. By working in partnership with community groups and organisations to include autism friendly screenings and further develop our Quiet Spaces, we hope that the future of the Festival is more open and socially inclusive than ever. As always, we are immensely grateful to our audiences, filmmakers and speakers for their participation and feedback.

Faye Latham, Marketing and Communications Coordinator at Kendal Mountain Festival.

LOOKING AFTER NEURO-DIVERSITY AT EVENTS

Some of you may have heard the term “neuor-diverse” being used, but what does it mean? Briefly, it iis a blanket term used to describe a condition some people may have with different cognitive abilities This can manifests as ADHD, autism or dyslexia behaviours. Neuro-diversity may be present in adults as well as children and can manifest in varying degrees, some of which may be disabling in some circumstances.

People with ADHD or an autism want to come out and enjoy events but may need a bit of support in doing so, particularly if their condition begins to manifest in a negative way. Their neuro-diversion may sometimes leave them vulnerable to episodes of confusion, anxiety or over-stimulation especially in a crowd.

Your awareness of these conditions and offer of support will allow your attendees to feel more comfortable at an event and may even encourage more people to attend if they know you are responsive to these conditions. Here are a few ideas you may consider

Have a “Safe Space” or “Quiet Room” that people can visit. This can be a simple small pop up tent with a few chairs that is isolated from general public access, perhaps next to your medics, security, welfare or information point so the person can feel secure and less stimulated but still able to call out to someone if they feel anxious and need to talk. If a neuro-diverse person is allowed time to step out of the crowds and away from all of the visual stimulation and noise, they can compose themselves and return to the event when they feel ready.

At times, a child with ADHD or an autism may bolt away from the parent and end up at your Lost Kids point. Rather than having them over stimulated by sitting and watching the crowd, have the found child sit behind a curtained area and monitored by your DBS checked minders. Have some fidget toys for them to play with. You may want to consider providing a “heavy blanket” that the child can wrap up in, as this sometimes helps calm down someone who is restless or stressed. Note: a heavy blanket can help calm down neuro-diverse adults too. Fidget toys and heavy blankets are easy to find on line

Consider displaying the symbol for neuro-diverse support on your website, in your event programme or on signage within the event. This is a rainbow coloured infinity symbol and again, can easily be found on line. State that a Quiet Space will be available or that your Lost Kids point will support children with ADHD or autism. By doing so this may make a difference between someone buying tickets for your event or staying home.

Outdoor events have come a long way in being inclusive and offering good customer care to all. By including support to neuro-diversion you will showing your customers your awareness and care for allowing them to have the best possible time at your event.

Linda Krawecke