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Valley Fest×BillyChip
Valley Fest × BillyChip

A £2 chip. A hot drink, a meal, and a bit of hope.

BillyChip started in Bristol with a question from a 20-year-old ambulance driver to his dad: why don’t you give change to people on the street? The answer became a blue token that anyone can buy for £2 and hand to someone who needs it — redeemable for a drink or a meal, never for anything else. Valley Fest is bringing it to the farm.

How it works at Valley FestBilly’s story
Born in Bristol, 2018£2 · a drink or a mealRegistered charity
£2one BillyChip
2018the foundation began
£20kraised at the first FestaBill
1ambulance driver’s idea
Bristol & Bathwhere it started
10mifrom the farm
The story

From a 4am conversation
to a currency of kindness

Billy Abernethy-Hope was a 20-year-old ambulance driver from Bristol who would sit and talk with people sleeping rough, even at four in the morning on the way home. He asked his dad Jon why he never gave them loose change; Jon admitted he worried the cash might be misused. Together they came up with a token. Billy died in a motorbike accident in Thailand in 2018 — and his family, his sister Meg and his dad Jon, turned the idea into a charity in his name.

A BillyChip being handed to someone on the streetA sustenance token
How it works

Buy a chip. Give a chip. Someone eats.

A BillyChip costs £2 from a participating shop, café or bar. You give it to someone on the street. They swap it for a hot or cold drink of their choice — or a meal where the outlet offers one — at any participating outlet, including selected Greggs and Co-op branches. The charity reimburses the retailer; nothing can be spent on anything else.

  • Billy’s photo on one side, the word “hope” on the other
  • Redeemable in Bristol, Bath, London and a growing list of towns
  • “If you hand someone a BillyChip on the streets of Bristol and Bath they know what it is straight away.” — Jon Hope
The crowd at Valley FestFestivals are where it started
FestaBill

A festival built the charity in the first place

After Billy died, his family held a memorial festival, FestaBill. Around a thousand people bought £2 tickets and raised £20,000 — the money that minted the first chips. BillyChip Live has since taken the message to Glastonbury’s late-night area The Common, with Wilkinson headlining its 2023 launch.

  • “Taking BillyChip to new audiences is really important to us.” — Meg Abernethy-Hope, co-founder
  • “Offering live events to share the work we’re doing feels like a fitting legacy.” — Jon Hope, co-founder
  • A Bristol charity for a festival ten miles from Bristol
Families camping at Valley FestAn audience that chooses carefully
Why Valley Fest

10,000 people who back local

Valley Fest’s crowd comes from Bristol, Bath and the South West — the same streets where a BillyChip is already understood. They read labels, they back local, and they remember the causes that made their weekend mean something.

  • Families, food lovers and music fans in the same field
  • Four days of dwell time, not a four-second impression
  • A festival that grew out of a community farm
There are so many people that don’t want to give cash but want to help. That excuse is gone now. Jon Hope · co-founder, BillyChip
Together at Valley Fest

BillyChip
on the farm

Three ways we are working with BillyChip to put the chip in people’s hands at Valley Fest 2027 — and in Bristol and Bath after it.

At the barsOn site

Add a chip to your round

What
BillyChips on sale at the festival bars and the box office, £2 each, alongside the drinks.
How
Buy one with your cider, take it home, and hand it to someone on the street in Bristol or Bath the next time you see them.
Why it works
Ten thousand people leave the farm with a chip in their pocket and a reason to use it.
Bar presenceBox office£2 a chip
The story on stageProgramme

Billy’s story, told by his family

What
A spot in the talks programme for Meg and Jon to tell the story of Billy and the chip.
Where
The Community Farm field, between the long-table feasts and the wellness garden.
Why it works
The idea lands best from the people who lived it. Nobody leaves without understanding what the chip is for.
Talks programmeFamily audienceBristol story
After the weekendYear-round

From the field to the street

What
BillyChip in the Valley Fest newsletter, socials and the charity carousel that runs to 55k+ people across our channels.
With
Our other charity partners — Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, Greenpeace, MS Society, Alzheimer’s Society and Children with Cancer UK.
Why it works
The festival is four days; the partnership runs all year.
NewsletterCharity carousel55k+ reach
Get involved

Three ways in

Buy a chip

Pick one up at the bars or the box office on site — or from any participating shop in Bristol and Bath today.

Stock the chip

Run a café, bar or shop? Sign up as an outlet at billychip.com and you’ll receive a starter pack of chips.

Partner with us

Impact partnerships at Valley Fest back a named project and tell that story all year, not just in August.

29 July – 1 August 2027 · Chew Valley Lake

£2 at the bar.
Hope on the street.

Come for the weekend, leave with a chip in your pocket. Tickets for Valley Fest 2027 are on sale now.

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