4. The Great Street Feast Manchester - an evening with Fiona & Andy 🍷🌮🍱🥘🫕🍹

Dave and I were delighted to accept a wonderful birthday invitation from Fiona and Andy to join them as guests at The Great Street Feast Manchester in November.

TGSFT was a fund raising event from Freedom From Torture (FFT), of which Fiona is a trustee. We’d heard about this scheduled event when we attended the FFT Manchester launch event earlier this year, and were  keen to attend. This event is vital in raising funds to continue the amazing therapeutic work that FFT do with torture survivors across the north west. The theme of food was carefully chosen too, as is extremely emotive to survivors who have been forced to flee their homelands. 

A Manchester icon, John Thompson was the welcoming host for the evening, who gave an introduction to the event and some of the important contextual information.

Various street food stalls were dotted around the space, from which we were free to sample their wares 😃 Tastings included Lancashire hotpot, potted shrimps, Sri Lankan rolls and other tasty morsels, Congolese eel, smoked salmon & Lancashire cheese canapés, followed by sugary chocolate donuts - all washed down with an array of red & white wine, and cocktails 🍷🍹

Lancashire hotpot & potted shrimps

Dave & Andy - very focused!

Fiona 😃

Tasty canapés 

Sri Lankan Street Food

With tasty morsels and plenty of wine to keep us happy, the main entertainment of the evening, in the form of the fund raising auction took place, and what a laugh it was 🤣 The star of the show was a professional auctioneer, who did his upmost to raise as much money as possible for FFT. His quick whit and banter had us all chuckling, and he certainly knew how to work the room! Lots included tickets to meet and see Romesh Ranganathan, a Stanley Chow print, tickets to see Steven K. Amos, amongst other things

The auction 

The final event of the evening was the raffle. Doners had been extremely generous with prizes, and amazingly we won one - a £100 meal voucher to spend at the prestigious Manchester restaurant Australasia 🥳 

Looking forward to another trip to Manchester 😃

It was a great evening, and all in aid of an absolutely worthy cause. Really good to connect once again with the purpose and work of FFT, and extremely privileged to be invited as Fiona & Andy’s guests. . Thank you so much for your generosity and friendship over the years, and thanks for making this a really special birthday celebratory event ❤️