The Great Feast
of London.

A festival for a city that could not gather.

The opportunity

In the summer of 2020 the restaurants were shut, the festivals were cancelled and nobody could be in a room together. The whole industry I had spent my life in was built on gathering, and gathering had been taken away.

The strategic idea

If people could not come to the food, the food would go to them, and the rest of the festival would come down the wire. I co-founded The Great Feast of London with Bejay Mulenga to run over three days: chefs cooking, meals delivered across the city, cook-alongs people could follow at home, and music through the whole thing.

The programme

DJ sets from Goldie, Felix Buxton of Basement Jaxx, Tom Findlay of Groove Armada, Jazzie B and Don Letts went out live on Soho Radio while the food arrived at doors across London. The point was that it happened at the same time for everybody, which is the only part of a festival you cannot get from a takeaway.

The constraints

Kitchens were operating under restrictions, delivery capacity was stretched across the city, and every partner was working from home in a week when the rules could change. The programme had to be built so that a single supplier dropping out on the day would not take the day with it.

What it showed

It is here because it is the furthest the work has travelled from a building. Same job as a market hall or a yard: find the idea, assemble the people, hold the standard, open on the day. The form was a city and a radio station instead of a site.

Press

• Time Out · Great Feast of London: full line-up revealed → 1 July 2020
• Evening Standard · The Great Feast of London, Spirit of London →