It has been a while since our last blog, and sadly even longer since our last Soup. 2020 has meant we haven’t been able to hold our spring, summer or, even worse, our favourite Christmas Soup.
However, inspired by some fellow Soupers in different parts of the country, the Brighton Soup team are working on plans to hold a virtual Soup in March 2021.
We can’t all be in the same room but we are aiming to recreate the spirit and fun of a real life Brighton Soup online.
You will be able to buy a ticket and then access the virtual Soup live via Zoom on the night.
There will be:
Four projects doing short pitches via Zoom, with time for questions
A soup making demo with a delicious recipe so you can make it at home and eat along
A musical interlude
Online voting for your favourite project
So, we hope to see you for Soup on Zoom in March. Tickets will be on sale in the New Year, so watch this space.
If you are an organisation who would like to apply to pitch at our very first Virtual Soup, you can do so here.
Sorry we haven’t posted in a little while, but hope you’re all well and having a good start to your year. Being volunteer run, we sometimes have to take time out when life stuff happens, and we had lots of it at the start of the year. So we took a break and next thing we know it’s March already!
We’re getting back to it now, but it means we won’t be holding our usual spring soup at the end of this month (boo!). We will be doing our summer one though, and can confirm it will be on Friday 3rd July at All Saints Hove.
If you want to apply to pitch we’re open for submissions now, and if you want tickets they will be available online at the start of June.
Thanks for listening.
So, are we good?
See you soon.
Team Soup
BrightonSoup @ All Saints on Friday 3rd July 2020
The Drive Hove BN3 3QE
Doors open 6 pm, event starts at 7pm. Finishes around 9:30 pm.
Friday 13th December @ Community Base – 5th Floor Conference Room
The one with the big grins, silly hats and mulled cider, though probably not in that order. The chefs are concocting their delicious delights, and Shauna is tuning her guitar and practicing scales. Later this morning our hopeful pitchers will be doing a little training in preparation. And our team of overly excited little elves are packing raffle prizes and desperately eager to get it all started. All that’s missing is you!
In July 2018, Evie, Caitlin & Jo came to BrightonSoup, hoping to get some funds to support their Park Life Campaign, a coming together of local residents and parents trying to get a decent park in Whitehawk. They had rushed to get there because they were the reserve project and had to step in at the last moment when one of our scheduled projects dropped out.
They didn’t win the vote that night. Jess Bayley did for the Centre for Ecotherapy project.
Park Life, didn’t win the vote or the £441.80 donations that evening. But they were completely taken by the warm support and encouragement they got from you all that evening. That wasn’t all though, as one of our regular soupers decided to donate to them the same amount, £441.80.
We’re delighted they will be coming along to soup next week to give us all an update on their project.
Hope to see you all soon.
Team Soup
Jess gave a project update at our recent June event which we posted up recently, and you can read up on last summer’s soup here.
In July 2018, Jess Bayley came to our Summer BrightonSoup at St George’s in Hangleton, to pitch on a project for the Centre for Ecotherapy. Her project won the vote and was awarded £441 from tickets and donations on the night. At this year’s Summer event at All Saints, Hove, Jess came back to give us an update on how the project went and how the money helped.
Some of you may have been there the night she won, maybe even voted voted for the project. Well if you didn’t make the last event or hear her update, Jess will tell you about it here.
Project Update: Jess Bayley from Centre for Ecotherapy
Jess pitching at St Georges, Hangleton in July 2018
Jess and her fellow pitchers
“We won £441 from Brighton Soup.
The project that we pitched for was to fund food purchases for the years youth provision. The programme provided twice monthly ‘Lifeskills’ sessions for young people with Educational Health and Care Plans (EHCP). We based our work around the fire, learning the skills of building, lighting, and maintaining a fire throughout the session and cooking on it. The money provided the food and cooking utensils.
Meals we cooked were chosen to be simple, healthy, fresh and diverse so that the young people could learn and potentially cook them again at home.
Meals such as: Pasta and vegetables in a tomato sauce; wraps and salad with a selection of different cheeses and houmus; sausages (vegetarian and meat) and mash; curry and rice; leek and potato soup; toasties with ham, cheese, tomatoes and onion; macaroni cheese; sandwiches with selection of fillings; you get the picture!
“Being at (the Centre for Ecotherapy) puts me in my safe zone. It lets me be open minded and try new things. It’s a place where I can speak my mind and listen to others, and talk about my problems in a safe place… Now I come to Ecotherapy, it feels like nothing can get in my way.”
16 year old participant
Fundamental in the sessions is the discussion that goes with the tasks, encouraging and guiding good behaviour, social modeling, highly focused attention to individual need and concern.
Added to that the calm and nurturing natural space the Centre for Ecotherapy provides with opportunity to learn from what goes on around, the young people benefitted enormously from the programme.
“My son really liked the calm atmosphere of being in the woods and learning outside the classroom, taking pressure and stress away from him, therefore enabling him to learn more.
He liked the course sessions because it showed him how to do things differently with things around him, so I believe this helped him to ‘think outside the box’ and could be used in different situations and would give him confidence to try other new things and believe in himself.”
Parent of young person
The young people shared the preparation, creation of the food and the clearing up afterwards, along with sawing and chopping wood for the fire, making drinks for the group and participating in the tasks assigned them.
“Ecotherapy engages the young offenders in nature and the community simultaneously…(It) works particularly well at engaging young people who are failing to attend school, or who display extremely challenging behaviour in the class room. The young people learn and stay focused doing the practical work and keep calm and relaxed in the open, outdoors environment.”
BHCC Youth Offending Team officer
During the time we worked with this group I was asked to submit an article on ecotherapy for young people by the British Holistic Medical Association. The article was published in the Spring Edition of the Journal of Holistic Healthcare.
I was able to base a some of my article on the current experience with the young people in our group.
Jess and her project poster
The event was great. I felt particularly supported, valued and informed throughout the whole process. I enjoyed it all immensely and feel it is a wonderful community event.
Thanks to you all.”
Jess Bayley Project Manager The Centre for Ecotherapy
Thanks, Jess!
You can read more on the work of the The Centre for Ecotherapy and details on our Summer 2018 event that Jess pitched at here.
That’s all for now, but we’ll be announcing the music for our September event soon! They haven’t played at soup before, you have probably have met at a previous event.
Start guessing :).
There’s still time to submit a project if you fancy facing the room, and tickets are available here.
With just a few weeks to go and no band booked to play at our Summer Soup event, enter stage right some Brighton musicians to the rescue. Three talented regulars from the Neptune’s Open Mic Nights have banded together to save the day and give us a special performance. Fellow band members Phil (singer/guitar) and Chris (Bass) are joined by mate Alan (Drums) in a band put together especially for soup. How cool is that!
Phil and Chris recently formed the band Burning Skies and you can see them play some tracks from their debut gig here. For our entertainment they will be playing a couple of band tracks along with some covers. These guys, along with drummer Alan, have been part of the Brighton music scene for a long time so we’re expecting a real treat.
Phil and Chris playing their recent debut debut gig at The Neptune.
Well now the entertainment is sorted, what about the rest?
The chefs are no doubt carefully planning what deliciousness they will bring on the night, though some may just knock out a masterpiece with what they have available the night before. Our raffle wrangler is out and about collecting some very special prizes, even for us. And the projects to pitch were all selected over the weekend. I think we’re good to go!
Well, it all seems like a while ago now, but we finally got our last event photos up. Here’s a few photos to whet your appetite. Or see the whole album here.
BrightonSoup @ St Richard’s Friday 22nd March 2019
Summer Soup!
We’re also pleased to annouce our summer soup date, June 28th!
We’re back at All Saints and wouldn’t it be great for a gloriously sunny day where we can have the garden doors open.
It’s always great when a previous winner returns to tell us how their project progressed gone since they were given your money, even better when they come back and perform for us!
“4 young songwriters come together to perform a track using what they have learned at music technology workshops. Equaliser is a space for young women to create, explore and adapt. It’s a support network and a space where we can learn and grow together.”
This time last year, Isha, Boudicca and Tom from Audi Active won the vote and took £698 in ticket money and donations for their Young Women in Tech project. The project encourages young women to get involved in the technical side of the creative arts.
Next week, Boudicca Pepper is returning to give us all an update on the AudioActive project and how it’s been going since they won the funding.
Even better, she will be joined by three other young songwiters from the course – Miri, Nina and Ellie – to perform for us. How fantastic is that!
We haven’t been posting much since our last event and that was soooo last year. Literally. And we’re not using that ironically either. It was back in December 2018 and since then we’ve had a fair bit of downtime. But now, it’s time for uptime. Or as we like to say, “Now is the go!”
It’s about time we announced our next event, well past that time really. So that’s what we’re doing. And where do we go next? We’re returning to St Richard’s Community Hall in Hangleton, where we hosted our second event, way back in September 2015. Like we said earlier, it’s been a while.
Setting the stage.
A very friendly bunch of Hangleton dragons.
Daren and Charlie from Dare To Be Charlie.
Tamsin Hardman, winning £300.70 for her Wide Berth project, helping socially isolated mothers.
If you want to join us you can get tickets here. And if you need a little funding for a project you’re running, or a great idea for one you’d like to start – something that helps your local community – then submit an application here.
We’re pleased to announce that singer-songwriter Jiminy Brooke will be joining us at our next soup night!
A classically trained pianist from the Balkans, Jiminy moved to Brighton a year ago to pursue contemporary music. She is heavily influenced by jazz and R&B.
If you want to get a flavour of her music before our event next week, you can follow her on instagram: @jiminy.brooke
Looking forward to seeing you all on the 30th at Community Base!
Don’t forget to buy your tickets in advance…it’s looks like its going to be busy!
BrightonSoup 