Chris Evans gathers the stars and cars for the greater good!

Hear from Sam about what we got up to at the biggest family fundraising event of the year:

As a passionate fundraiser and Bruce Springsteen fan, CarFest is my favourite event of the year in our fundraising calendar. In my heart, all I want to do is bring good people together, to achieve amazing things for anyone who needs us.

My fourth CarFest, this year’s lived up to the promise of being the biggest and best yet. From witnessing our Starlight ambassador Kitty and her family share their amazing story to over 20,000 people live on stage, to seeing thousands of children enjoy playing at the Starlight area, whilst creating artwork to brighten up children’s hospital wards across the UK with some help from Joe Whale - aka DoodleBoy.

CarFest gives me and my team the chance to engage families from across the UK in Starlight’s vital work. We provide them with a first-hand experience of how we ensure children have the opportunity, space and time to play.

CarFest doesn’t only tap into my and founder Chris Evans’s passion of music and cars (he is a Bruce fan too). It has generated over £600,000 for Starlight since becoming a partner in 2019. Chris generously splits 100% of the profits between Starlight and other charity partners.


It also uniquely provides seven festival experiences in one:

  • Cars and music (MusicFest) are prominent everywhere. They can be found in the fields and racetracks across the beautiful Laverstock Farm site.
  • I love meeting the stars at Starfest. Spot how many came to champion Starlight and the power of play. As well as Starlight’s play area in StarFest (where else would we be?), I love that my teenage kids can also indulge themselves.
  • KidsFest where my two find everything they love - from leaping on giant inflatable bouncy castles and football pitches, to driving in supercars with the amazingly generous Sporting Bears team. They get to play, their way.
  • In AdventureFest, you can challenge yourself to rock climbing, plunge pooling into freezing water and axe throwing, which I highly recommend.
  • One of my personal passions at Starlight, is using play to protect a child’s mental health throughout their treatment. Our partners at SpaFest allow festival goers to protect their own wellbeing whilst enjoying the festival trappings too!
  • At FoodFest, I get lost in the culinary delights of all the stands (a chocolate scotch egg being a Starlight firm favourite) and witness Andy Clarke’s amazing live stage cooking demos!
  • Finally, I love stepping back to the good old days of cars (Magnum PI, Knight Rider and Back to the Future are my faves), as well as some dad music (The Boss obvs), fashion (what’s that?) and toys in RetroFest! It really is a deep treasure trove of delights for all the family!

Get closer to team Starlight by joining us at CarFest this summer, 23rd- 25th August 2024 at Laverstoke Park Farm, Hampshire. For more information, visit: www.carfest.org.

We would love to show why play is so vital, and host you in supporting our work, whilst your whole family get to have an amazing August bank holiday weekend.

Looking forward to seeing you for a chocolate scotch egg next year!