617 customers. Two days. Our first-ever festival.
MEAT UP 2026 was the first one—and if year one’s anything to go by, this festival’s only going to get bigger.
Held at Ashley Showground in Cheshire, Meat Up brought live-fire cooking, British farming, craft butchery, music and family festival energy together for one huge weekend. Its whole field-to-flame ethos felt like a natural home for FOURGE.
It was also the first time the four of us had taken FOURGE into a festival field and served the public together.
We arrived excited. Nervous. Probably a little naive.
We left shattered, proud and completely blown away by the love we received.
617 Customers Across Two Days
More than 600 people served during our first festival as FOURGE.
We honestly didn’t know what to expect when the gates opened. We knew the food. We knew the flavours. We knew how much work had gone into getting there.
What we didn’t know was whether anyone would actually turn up and order it.
Then the queue started forming.
Orders kept coming. The fires stayed lit. Food kept moving across the counter.
Seeing people try our food for the first time was special. Seeing them return, bring their mates and order something else from the menu meant even more.
For a brand that’s still at the beginning of its journey, the response was unreal.
What We Cooked at Meat Up
We didn’t want our first festival menu to play it safe.
This was FOURGE.
It needed smoke. Grit. Big flavour. Food people would remember.
We created a rotating menu with different dishes available throughout the day:
Confit Brisket Croissant
Confit brisket with jalapeño cream cheese, a fried egg and strawberry jam.
Rich. Sweet. Spicy. Messy in all the right ways.
Smoked Boston Butt Doughnut
Smoked pork with smoked cream cheese, apple butter and scratching dust.
A proper sweet-and-smoky hit with crunch on top.
Smoked Brisket Bitterballen and Texas Twinkie
Two fired-up BBQ snacks served with a punchy Dijon dip.
Built for grabbing, dipping and going straight back for another bite.
Seven-Hour Slow-Cooked Pork Belly Ribs
Pork belly ribs cooked low and slow for seven hours, finished with a smoked peach tea sauce.
Sticky. Smoky. Worth the wait.
FOURGE Beef Link Pot
Sliced FOURGE beef link loaded with jalapeño cheese sauce and candied jalapeños.
No fuss. Just meat, heat and serious flavour.
Smoked Wings
Loads of smoked wings served with a choice of BBQ, hot sauce or blue cheese sauce.
Available all day—and sold one at a time so people could grab as many as they could handle.
The timed menu gave customers a reason to return throughout the day. Judging by the number of familiar faces coming back to the counter, it worked.
Day One Was Relentless
Saturday went hard from the moment things got moving.
The crowd was bigger and hungrier than many of the vendors had expected. Stock disappeared quickly, with several traders running out of food to cook.
We were burning through what we’d prepared too.
After a request from Steve, the main man behind Meat Up, we pulled out some of Sunday’s stock and fired everything back up.
There were still people waiting.
We weren’t about to stop feeding them.
While the crew continued serving, Liam headed back to The Catering Butcher to collect another serious load of meat. Not only for FOURGE, but for some of the other vendors who needed help keeping their own service alive.
That moment summed the weekend up.
There were loads of different traders doing their own thing, but when the pressure hit, people helped each other.
No ego.
No nonsense.
Just fire, food and a crew determined to keep going.
A New Respect for Festival Crews
From the customer side of the counter, festival cooking looks like a dream.
Smoke rolling through the air. Meat hitting the grill. Music playing. People laughing with a drink in their hand.
Behind the counter, it’s a different beast.
Lee—our resident digital geek—is usually hiding behind a screen or filming everything through an iPhone.
He wasn’t mentally or physically prepared for this one.
By the end of day one, he was a broken man. 😂
The weekend gave all of us even more respect for the cooks, traders and event crews who do this week in, week out.
The preparation. The loading. The heat. The constant service. The stock runs. The hours spent on your feet.
Then you clean everything down, get a few hours of sleep and start again.
Festival life takes serious grit.
FOURGE FOUNDERS in the Wild
One of the best moments of the weekend had nothing to do with sales or customer numbers.
It was seeing members of our FOURGE FOUNDERS community walking around the festival in their merch, talking about the brand and spreading the word about what we’re building.
That hit differently.
One absolute legend even had his FOURGE Founder number displayed on an LED panel attached to his baseball cap.
Was it subtle?
Not even slightly.
Did we love it?
Absolutely. 😂
FOURGE might’ve started with Andy, Ben, Liam and Lee, but it’s already becoming bigger than the four of us.
Seeing people proudly represent the brand showed us that the community we hoped to build is becoming real.
“The Best Bite of the Day”
We also received some serious feedback over the weekend.
Legends including Manchester Food Ambassador and Double Cheese Bees Knees came over to try what we were cooking.
Hearing claims like “this could be the best bite of the day” at our first festival was hard to process.
You spend weeks planning.
Testing dishes. Changing recipes. Working out timings. Calculating stock. Questioning whether you’ve prepared too much—or nowhere near enough.
Then someone takes a bite and says something like that.
It makes every hour worth it.
A Steadier Second Day
Sunday was a little quieter, but orders continued to flow throughout the day.
The slightly steadier pace came with one massive bonus:
We actually managed to stop for five minutes and eat some lunch. 😂
It also gave us a chance to look beyond our own counter.
We caught up with old friends, met new ones and finally spoke to some of the other cooks, traders and crews who’d been working just as hard all weekend.
Meat Up wasn’t simply a collection of food stalls. It brought chefs, farmers, butchers, producers and live-fire cooks together to show the full journey behind what ends up on the plate. That connection between the field, the craft and the flame sat at the heart of the festival.
That matters to us.
Great BBQ doesn’t begin when the meat reaches the grill.
It starts with how it’s raised, sourced, butchered, seasoned and treated at every stage.
Our First Festival—but Not Our Last
MEAT UP was a huge step for FOURGE.
It tested us physically. It exposed the gaps in our planning. It taught us what works, what needs tightening and just how much stock a hungry festival crowd can tear through.
Most importantly, it showed us that people connect with what we’re building.
They connected with the food.
They connected with the brand.
They connected with the crew and the community forming around it.
We’ll take everything we learned and come back sharper, stronger and even more prepared for the next one.
Although maybe not next weekend.
We’re still recovering. 😂
Thank You
To every person who queued, ordered food, returned for another dish, wore FOURGE merch, stopped for a chat or told somebody else to come and find us—thank you.
To Steve and the Meat Up team, thank you for bringing the first festival to life and trusting FOURGE to be part of it.
To the traders, cooks, farmers, butchers and event crews who kept the whole thing moving, respect.
And to everyone who’s supported FOURGE from the beginning, we honestly appreciate every bit of love you’ve shown us.
617 customers.
Four friends.
One unforgettable first festival.
This was only the beginning.
United by Flame. 🔥
