When Lyra invited us to be part of this year’s Bright & Wild Festival, we knew we wanted to do more than simply feed hungry festival-goers. Just like the festival itself, we wanted to put young people at the heart of everything.
Based just around the corner from us in Craigmillar, Lyra is a performing arts organisation where children and young people create bold theatre, dance and creative projects. Every summer, Bright & Wild transforms the venue into a celebration of their ideas, voices and imagination. This year’s festival, the seventh edition, invited Lyra’s Young Artists to explore the theme A Brave New World, reimagining a world that isn’t built for them through performances, installations, discussions and interactive experiences. A few weeks before the festival even began, that spirit of creativity had already found its way into our kitchen.
A group of young people from Castlebrae Community Campus joined our chefs to dream up a menu inspired by the festival’s futuristic theme. Together, they talked about the food they love to eat, experimented with recipes and gave every dish an imaginative twist. The result was a menu that was as playful as the festival itself: Explosive Chickpea Curry, Radioactive Rings (our yummy stuffed cookies) and Atomic Shells, which were toasted flatbreads filled with tomato, cheese and homemade pesto. Just like their name suggests, the surprise was hidden inside until the first bite.
The cooking sessions were busy, with lots of discussion and laughter as everyone learned new skills and contributed their ideas. One young participant proudly told us, “Making the cookie dough from scratch was really fun and I think I’ll actually try making that at home.” Moments like these are exactly why we love working with young people in this community: seeing them become more and more confident and adventurous with food means the world to us! Creating delicious food that young people genuinely want to eat (and hopefully make again at home!) is a sign that these classes and projects do have an impact on young people and their relationship with food, cooking and nutrition. To see more of our projects like this one, take a look at this video.
Luckily for us, when festival weekend arrived, so did the Scottish sunshine. The queues at our food truck barely stopped moving. Families of performers, local residents and festival-goers lined up throughout the weekend as music drifted across the site and young people darted between stages, groups of friends and our food truck. Over two busy days, we served more than 100 Atomic Shells, handed out huge vats of Explosive Chickpea Curry until there wasn’t a spoonful left, and watched the starry Radioactive Rings disappear almost as soon as they were placed on the counter. Plenty of people came back for seconds. Watch our reel from the day to get a feel for the buzzy atmosphere!
One parent summed it up perfectly:
“This is exactly the sort of food our kids should be eating.”
Many of the young people who had helped create the menu were also performing throughout the festival. Between rehearsals, performances and costume changes, they rushed back to the food truck to take orders, serve meals and proudly hand over the dishes they’d spent weeks planning and preparing. It was so impressive seeing them switch so effortlessly between performer, chef and server. The festival itself was packed with creativity and fun activities. Audiences enjoyed theatre including Yer Da Works at Tescos, dance performances such as Meet Me On The Dancefloor, the wonderfully immersive Dream Bus, storytelling, discussions including Brighter & Wilder: Re-write the Narrative and countless opportunities to explore the world through young people’s eyes. Even our own team became part of the audience. One of our chefs Pawell, who lives locally in Craigmillar (and started his journey with us as a volunteer!) slipped away from the food truck for an hour to watch his daughter perform in Meet Me On The DanceFloor.
Throughout the weekend, we heard plenty of comments that made us smile.
“The food is so delicious, I never usually eat curry,” one visitor admitted after polishing off a bowl of Explosive Chickpea Curry. Another wandered over to the truck after his meal just to tell us, “You guys are terrific.”
Working with Lyra is always a joy. As neighbours in Craigmillar, we share a belief that young people thrive when they’re given responsibilities and opportunities to be creative. Bright & Wild is full of smiles, sparkles and imagination, and it feels incredibly special to contribute to that atmosphere in our own way. A huge thank you to Lyra for inviting us to collaborate, to every young person who helped create and serve the menu, and to everyone who queued patiently in the sunshine to support them. We loved being part of your Brave New World, and we’re already looking forward to next year’s festival.
