On 15 June, FLASHFEAST was organised as a launch day and celebration of Street Feast , a new annual event developed by advocates from Ireland to celebrate community. The launch was held on the plaza beside City Hall in Dublin and involved participants and passers-by sitting down to share delicious ‘green’ food and chat in the wonderful lunchtime sunshine.

“The idea is simple - on Sunday 18 July we’re inviting people all over Ireland to host a local lunch with their neighbours, to celebrate their street, area or community” Jerrieann, one of the advocates and co-founders explains. “Each Street Feast is self-organised, and will be as different as the neighbourhood that hosts it”.

Within Northern Ireland, advocates ran a ‘Smaller Dinner’ event which saw around 55 people sharing food and doing work together on a local organic farm. There were lawyers, lecturers, community workers, musicians, mums, dads, students, farmers, engineers, British, Irish, Americans, Swedes, Italians, South Africans and many more, spanning an age range of 6 months to 67. The ‘Smaller Dinner’ acted as a lead up event to the Eden Project’s, ‘Big Lunch’ initiative which will also take place across the UK on 18 July.

Both Street Feast and the Big Lunch aim to connect people in their communities through understanding and participating in the production of food and its eating. To get involved, people can visit either website, download guides, print off posters, and stick a pin in the online map to show where and when their event will take place.

People are planning Street Feasts and Big Lunches across NI/Ireland –
in Dublin, Wicklow, Wexford, Cork, Galway and Tipperary, Belfast, Ballymena, Craigavon and Ballyclare, with more popping up everyday.

And if you live outside Ireland or the UK, why not take up the challenge as well by organising your own community food feast and making this a truly international celebration!