Some festivals sell you a line-up. FeastyFest sells you a weekend — and on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 September 2025, Cheam Park filled up once again with the smell of a hundred kitchens, the sound of two stages and more than 11,000 people making a proper day of it. We rated it highly enough to name it Best Small Festival at the 2025 UK Festival Guides Awards — proof that smaller can truly be better. After two full days on site, here's exactly why.

The food: the reason you come

Let's start where FeastyFest starts. The street-food village is the heart of the event, and in 2025 it was bigger and better-travelled than ever — low-and-slow BBQ, fragrant Sichuan, Greek, Lebanese, Indian and Spanish, all jostling for your attention and, inevitably, defeating any plan to "just have one thing." The tip, as ever: come hungry, do a full lap before you commit, and share so you can taste more. Wash it down at the cocktail bars, sample the gin and wine tastings, or grab a locally brewed beer, then work off the edges browsing the farmers' market and artisan stalls. It is, quite simply, one of the best days out for a food lover in the South East.

The music: familiar, feel-good, well-judged

Across two stages and two days, the line-up did exactly what a family food festival needs — kept a smile on everyone's face without ever demanding too much. Polished tribute sets sat alongside genuinely good local bands, spanning 90s pop, ska, reggae, soul and dance. Beatles Dub Club — the Fab Four reimagined through a reggae lens — was an unexpected highlight that had a huge chunk of the park singing and swaying, and the weekend built nicely to its headline sets each evening. It's sing-along, not stand-and-stare, and that's the point.

For families: genuinely, not just on the poster

Plenty of events call themselves family-friendly; FeastyFest actually means it. The free Kids World zone — climbing and ropes, zorbing, archery, arts and crafts, storytelling and mini-fairground rides — swallowed hours of the day and, crucially, let the grown-ups linger over the food and music guilt-free. The flat parkland site is easy with prams and little ones, and there's enough packed in that older kids don't get bored either.

The setting and the spirit

Two things lift FeastyFest above the average food fair. First, the setting: Cheam Park is a proper green expanse, an easy walk from Cheam station, so it feels like a day out rather than a car-park-and-queue. Second, and more importantly, it's a not-for-profit community festival raising money for local causes — and you can feel that in the atmosphere. It's relaxed, local and warm rather than slick and corporate; exactly the kind of independent event our Best Small Festival award exists to champion.

Room to improve

No day out is perfect. The one thing to plan around is timing: the most popular traders drew real queues around the lunchtime peak, and with the site being card-only those lines can crawl. Our advice — eat early or eat late, dodge the 1pm crush, and you'll barely notice. It's a symptom of success more than a failing, but it's the difference between a very good day and a flawless one.

The verdict

FeastyFest 2025 was a confident, great-value year — a genuinely delicious, well-run, family-first weekend that fully earns both its billing as one of Surrey's largest independent festivals and its place at the top of our small-festival awards. As it stands, it's a a clear five out of five, and we'll be first through the gates next year.

And you can be too: it's already confirmed for 2026. See the full FeastyFest 2026 line-up, dates and details, or grab your 2026 tickets on Skiddle before prices climb.