To ask if anyone has organised a street party?

[IchWill]

The whole close was out clapping and cheering for NHS last night, like we've been doing each week, waving at each other shouting out hellos and how are you etc. (This isn't virtue signalling BTW, just setting the scene).

It made me think just how lucky I am to have lovely neighbours. There's 44 houses in the close, but we do tend to know each other and say hello, have a chat etc. We're in a village that is actually bang inside Milton Keynes, with some houses way older than MK itself, so the estate definitely has more of a community feel to it.

The last street party I went to was for Charles and Diana's wedding when I was four. Maybe I'm feeling nostalgic, but I think it would be a nice thing to look forward to after lockdown is lifted and Covid rates are falling / gone.

I know some of you would baulk at the idea of spending time with neighbours! 😂 But I think it could strengthen the community further and be fun.

Anyone else planning on doing similar, or hosted a street party in recent times? Any tips?

Mine has an annual party. Usually one side of the road brings sweet things and the other side savoury. It’s arranged with the council to let us close the road off for the day. People are asked to park their cars off the road if they can. We get a BBQ set up and stand around chatting. The kids can ride up and down on their bikes playing together. It’s a nice day!

It is a nice idea. I loved our street parties when I was a child. We're always saying we'll do it but it doesn't happen.

@Nutellapastries sounds great. I was thinking of BBQs too and people bringing out garden furniture instead of the long row of tables.

How do you organise it, is there a committee, or Facebook / WhatsApp group?

Does everyone chip in? Anyone that refuses to take part?

@EmeraldShamrock maybe you can start one? 😊

Yep, I have organised them in the past. Not sure about your council, but here it's pretty straightforward. Find some like-minded neighbours, meet to discuss dates etc. Apply to council for road closure and music/alcohol licence if appropriate. Then door drop and get a committee together. Ours was v low key, just closed the road, let kids play, met for cakes and BBQ. All BYO so the only thing that really needed organising was manning the road entrances.

This was mentioned in our cul de sac last night but I don’t think there’s going to be a single moment of ‘this is over’. It’ll be a very gradual return to normal and it will still be hanging over us for many many months to come. Lovely idea but I don’t think it’ll be the moment people are hoping for.

Thanks peeps. Food for thought. I think I'll just pop some leaflets through the doors to gauge interest and then wait it out to see how everything pans out before getting the ball rolling.

I would say this isn't going to be over, in the sense the OP may mean, for a very long while.

Street parties may not be the thing for those who have relatives dead from the virus.

That's a sobering perspective. Thanks @Malvinaa81.

We have a real sense of community on our road and have had 4 or 5 in the last 10 years. We have a fairly active fb page too.
It's lovely.

The people who organised it the first time popped a note through the door and then did a knock on the whole close. It must have been quite laborious, but it was so worthwhile.

Doesn't need to be a bbq, houses that opted in were allocated some basic food stuff and then the rest was pot luck. It was byob too.
There were some very retro games that were a lot of fun... Sack race, egg and spoon etc.

We have a street party every summer in our cul-de-sac. There's only 11 houses though.
We get some BBQs out and on the go, all bring food and booze, we close the entrance to the cul-de-sac with cones and the kids all ride their scooters and play. It's always a fun day. I hope we can do it this year.