Our New Awards!

Street food is, obviously, about food.

But anyone who spends time around the British street food scene knows that it is also about much, much more: entrepreneurship, design, sustainability, community, technology, hospitality, politics, personality and the strange, wonderful ability of independent traders to turn almost anything — a van, a gazebo, a TikTok account, an empty warehouse — into a business.

That is why the 2026 British Street Food Awards are about more than finding the best thing to eat.

As we gear up for the run-in to the finals of the British Street Food Awards at Peddler Market in Sheffield on September 4-6, followed by the finals of the European Street Food Awards at the Burger Park in Saarbrucken on September 18-20, we’re shouting about four new awards that shine a light on the wider ecosystem around street food: Best Food Hall, Sustainability, Best Looking (for the coolest van, truck, trailer, tuk tuk or gazebo) and Best Digital Creator.

They might seem like very different categories. They are. And that is precisely the point.

Best Food Hall: The street food revolution moves indoors

Technically, a food hall isn’t street food.

There is usually no street involved. But food halls have become an increasingly important part of the street food revolution, creating new places for independent traders to work and new ways for customers to discover them.

For traders, a food hall can provide a new income stream and a degree of stability alongside the festivals, markets, pitches and events that make up their working lives.

For customers, the appeal is obvious. Why commit to a night out at a restaurant with one narrow menu when you and your friends can eat your way around a host of independent food businesses in the same place?

The best food halls feel like the next generation of the old food court — but without the Burger King and vinyl tabletops. They are bold, well-designed and confident, and they reflect the new energy in British food.

And there is an important distinction. Some food halls are genuinely populated by the independent traders who have built their businesses on the street. Others are filled with brands that have been designed in boardrooms to look like they belong there.

Who does it best?

We want you to nominate the UK’s best food hall here. We’ll create a shortlist from the nominations and put it to a public vote, with the winner announced at the 2026 British Street Food Awards grand final at Peddler Market, September 4–6.

Sustainability: Can street food change the way we eat?

Sustainability is no longer a nice extra. It is one of the defining challenges facing food businesses — and street food traders are often in a position to experiment, adapt and find practical solutions.

That might mean tackling food waste and finding ways to make it a thing of the past. It might mean considering the wider social impact of a business and how it interacts with its community. It might mean prioritising provenance, building a cleaner supply chain or changing the way a business sources, cooks, packages and serves its food.

The Sustainability Award exists to recognise traders who are doing something genuinely meaningful — particularly those going beyond the obvious and finding new ways to operate responsibly.

Are you taking steps to become more sustainable? Or do you know someone who is?

Tell us what you’ve done. It could be something small that has transformed the way you work, or something ambitious that could change the way the industry thinks.

The Sustainability Award is free to enter and is designed to celebrate street food businesses going the extra mile.

Nominate someone or apply yourself here.

Best Looking: Your flash is your cash

There is a saying in street food: “Your flash is your cash.”

And it is true.

A good-looking van can stop people in their tracks. A beautifully painted caravan can turn into an Instagram backdrop. An unusual tuk tuk, trike or trailer can become part of the identity of a business.

When you’re selling food in a busy market, festival or street, how you look matters.

So, who has the best-looking van, truck, trailer, gazebo, caravan or tuk tuk in street food today?

The Best Looking Award — sponsored again this year by MajiSign — is always one of our most hotly contested categories. Previous winners have included JB, @thehiphopchipshop, @splitscreenicecream_co, @pabellonvenezuelanfood, @utterwaffle, @harl3ydogs and @peddlingpizzas.

And this year we’re making it even bigger.

We’re opening the award up to the whole of Europe.

Nominate your favourite here. We’ll create a longlist and put the finalists to a public vote. Then, at either the 2026 British Street Food Awards final at Peddler Market or the 2026 European Street Food Awards in Germany, we’ll reveal the winners.

Because in street food, the truck isn’t just a vehicle.

It’s your shopfront, your billboard, your branding and, sometimes, your best marketing department.

Best Digital Creator: Who is shaping street food now?

The British Street Food Awards wouldn’t exist without social media.

When we launched the Awards, Twitter was the place where the street food community found each other, argued, shared ideas and spread the word. Today, the landscape is completely different.

TikTok, Instagram and YouTube have transformed the way customers discover traders, decide where to eat and understand the people behind the food.

And the people doing that work aren’t simply “influencers”.

We want to recognise the digital creators and street food champions who understand the audience, understand the traders and know how to tell a story — people who can convey something meaningful about street food and evoke an emotion about the businesses and people they love.

They might be food reviewers. They might be journalists. They might be creators. They might be traders themselves.

Perhaps they’re the person who sent thousands of customers your way. Perhaps they’re the person whose videos you watch every week. Perhaps they’ve helped change the conversation around an entire part of the industry.

Last year, the title went to Food Review Club.

Who gets it this year?

Nominate the online voice here that you think is having the biggest positive impact on British street food, and tell us why. We’ll create a shortlist for a public vote, with the winner announced live at the 2026 British Street Food Awards grand final at Peddler Market on September 4–6.

Four awards. One bigger picture.

Food halls. Sustainability. Design. Social media.

On the surface, these categories don’t have much in common.

But together they tell us something important about street food.

The sector isn’t just about what is on the plate. It is about where people eat, how businesses operate, what they look like, how they connect with their communities and who gets people talking about them.

Street food has always been a little bit political, a little bit entrepreneurial and a little bit rebellious. It is an industry where a great idea can start in a gazebo, where a clever paint job can become a brand, where a TikTok can transform a trader’s fortunes and where a food hall can create a whole new route into the business.

That dynamism is what we’re celebrating.

So nominate the food hall that gets it right. The trader making sustainability work. The van that stops you in your tracks. The online voice that makes you want to get out and eat.

Because street food is about much more than food.