ToffeeFest 2025: Was a BIG Evertonian family reunion!
This was the second annual ToffeeFest put on by the North American Toffees network an Everton Football Club supporters group located in the US, Canada, and Mexico.
I am not sure how or who or what exactly started this from the get go—I am sure it involves the gist of coming together with a bunch of Everton Football Club supporters spread around the big country that is the United States of America (about roughly 25 United Kingdoms fit within the country of the US according to Google1), and overall the northern parts of the Americas (about roughly 115 UKs can fit in North America according to Google). Over that massive space of land with about the population of the US being 340.1 million (in 2024) and also the population of North America 617.3 million (from Google, no year given) people—there are bound to be some Everton supporters in there wondering around. So why not see if we can get some of them—if not all of them together for a weekend! So, somehow in some way the idea of ToffeeFest was born from one or more Evertonians.
I am not sure how long this idea has been hanging around before I joined the North American Toffees network individually in the summer of 2023. I do remember it being well advertised by the time the first one was held in Chicago in April of 2024. It was already a thing when I joined the North American Toffees with my newly made supporters club the Madison Toffees in April 2024.
ToffeeFest is just a way for Everton supporters from around the US, North America, and around the world to come together to meet each other. To watch an Everton match with others. It’s a chance for those who have no supporter groups around them to hangout with other Toffees too. Meet those who they have been talking to forever online and finally get to meet them in person. There about a handful or so of us who done both Toffeefests that have been put on. It is nice to have a little group of people I know I get to see everywhere we go and every year. This year Dr. Everton or also known as Dr. David France OBE, who said this year he feels like it was an great big family reunion. I do agree. Last year it felt like I was going to Thanksgiving at my grandma’s house on my mom side that we do every year—our family tradition. Thanksgiving in this sense is bigger than Christmas to my family. We get more excited for it annually. It feels more like that to me, but in a different place every year and in April.
It makes me feel more connected to my football club and my Everton family too. The Everton family is basically my second family. I never felt so apart of something like this in my life. It’s hard to describe, hard to put into words. I feel like I am welcome in it and I am allowed to be myself. We all get and understand each other. We do not need to explain our love for Everton to each other—because we just get it. We understand it.
ToffeeFest did not used to be spelled as one word—it started out as two: Toffee Fest. I do not know how this happened or who started it. I think I might have started it because my hometown is called Waunakee and we have a town festival every year called WaunaFest which has different events2 through out the last weekend of July. So, I started typing it as ToffeeFest in the NA Toffees Lead WhatsApp chat. I did it so much without realizing this. Which I think lead others to do the same. If that is not the case, then I think the culture of hashtagging things online now for social media I think it might also became known as ToffeeFest in that way. Or just maybe both things happened which leads us to now typing out ToffeeFest for the name. Which now we need to get copyrighted! (Someone please take note…)
The first ToffeeFest was in Chicago. We had Adrian Heath who played for Everton during the years of 1982 through 1988. He also was the head coach of the MLS Minnesota Loons during the years of 2017 through 2023. He did a Q&A with everyone. He also went to the Chicago Cubs and Chicago Fire games with us all. He was there when we watched the Everton verses Nottingham Forest match—the one where the owner went on Nottingham Forest’s Twitter/X account and went on a rampage about the referees after losing the match (2-0 Everton).
This year ToffeeFest moved south to warmer climates to San Diego. Last year Chicago had it moments of it being extremely cold. I had a whiskey after the Cubs game to warm me up. Also, this was the biggest turnout we had thus far for ToffeeFest—around one hundred people or so!
We had Graham Stuart who won the FA Cup with Everton in 1995, he played for Everton between 1993 through 1997 as one of our special guests. Including Dr. France (Dr. Everton) who I mentioned above—an Everton historian, he started the Everton Historical Society. Both did two Q&A sessions on different days. Both had really fun and fascinating stories.
We watched the Nottingham Forest verses Everton match (1-0 Everton) kick off at 7 AM on Saturday morning. Was hard for us all to do—since a lot of us where having a blast at the welcome event the night before. The match was a hard one to watch. There is a good picture of everyone looking collectively anxious together watching the match. It was a stressful one to watch until “Abdoulaye Doucoure scored a dramatic 94th-minute winner,” states the BBC. I have thousands of videos (probably copies of the same video over and over again—I am never deleting because these videos means so much to me) on my phone of our celebrations of us after the final whistle.
We might not have the reaction to the goal quiet yet—someone is working on getting the footage from the security camera footage at the bar. I think we might have footage with someone from the social media team from Everton capturing it too. So, this might be a work in progress. [Do not quote me on this—I think it was said tongue in cheek (the part about the security camera footage).]
After watching the match at The Harp Pub some of us went to the beach to play some beach soccer/football including Graham Stuart himself and the social media guy from Everton. Then after that most of us went to the San Diego Waves game—with Graham Stuart too. That was just Saturday! Saturday was quite a long day for us all.
On Sunday we all met back at the Harp again for the Dr. Frances (Dr. Everton) Q&A. After that some of us went to the San Diego Padres game. After that we took one last group picture for ToffeeFest 2025 then said our final goodbyes until either the 2025 Premier League Summer Series or ToffeeFest 2026.
I really enjoyed the last two ToffeeFests that the North American Toffees network has put on. I am looking forward to ToffeeFest 2026 already—wherever that maybe. I hope it is something that can continue. The sense of connection that we all feel when we hangout together. A sense of family having a family reunion; the sense of belonging. As a writer, it is currently hard for me to put into words how it makes me feel. A sense of belonging, home, and family is what comes most to mind.
It’s expensive for some of us to travel to Liverpool to watch an actual Everton match with those who are from there and live there. So, the fact that we can get that sense of belonging somewhere closer to home is wonderful. I would say we are the moving Gwladys Street End… always on the go!
I hope that we can extend ToffeeFest into a bigger events as the years to come. I hope we spread the word about what Everton Football Club is internationally and here in the US. We got new US owners this year, Texas based the Friedkin Group. We would love to draw their attention to it too. Get them and more of everyone at the club involved and hopefully make it longer. Well, that is what I, Bailey Ayres wants. Only speaking for myself here. But, I am sure my fellow North American Toffees network leads want the same too.
My goal in life to make these all events until I leave this planet—also, to be one of the oldest one there in my nineties (if I do live that long). Make it a family affair too! Loved that the Colorado lead did that with his family. He brought his wife, his daughter, his daughter’s boyfriend, and his grandson along. There where a lot of families who where there this year. Anyone who loves Everton is welcome and even those who are from around the world too—not just a North American thing.
I hope to see lot more of new faces and old for years to come! Build more connections with my Everton family.
We also did a North American Toffee’s food drive around ToffeeFest, which we did the first year too. We where inspired by Fans Supporting Food Banks that was started in Liverpool between Everton and Liverpool Football Club supporters to donate food and money to their local food banks in the Liverpool and Merseyside area.
There was a goal to do this the weekend before ToffeeFest this year, but it did not work out due to the time change of the Arsenal match getting switched to around noon in the UK; which meant an early kick off for everyone in North America—7:30 AM, 6:30 AM, 5:30 AM, and 4:30 AM. It’s something that is only possible to do in one time zone but not the rest. So, it was switched to the weekend of ToffeeFest.
I held one for the Madison Toffees the week earlier because it was the Merseyside Derby. I knew I would get more action and donations from the Liverpool supporters. Did not help that it was on a Wednesday. If it was on a weekend, I am sure we would have done it then as a whole for the North American Toffees network. Most of everyone was at work. There where between the Everton and Liverpool supporters only seven or eight of us that showed up and five of us only donated money and/or donated food. I raised $1,140 that day out of our $1,878 goal! A special thank you to my mom, for donating $1,000! It was unexpected and really generous of you to do so. I also collected 15 food items (I brought three more before dropping the items off at the River Food Pantry).
The funny part about before the Nottingham Forest match we dedicated this event too something special and surprising happened—before kick off we where well over our goal of $1,878! Everyone was shocked at the news that Tony Sampson, the leader of the North American Toffees network announced to everyone in a WhatsApps message in the leads WhatsApp group! I believe I remember he also announced it in person at the event too. It made me feel proud of us all collectively as a group. I hope we can beat next year’s goal too—which should be tripled or should be what we raised this year. Keep on pushing ourselves to do better and more for our communities.
Final stats for our food drive:
$6.5K raised
Over 100+ food stuff was donated
Helps by providing 20K+ meals
I am not counting how many Liverpools fit in the US or North America. That is something worth Googling yourself—if you want to know. (I may have took a break and done so myself.)
One of them is called the WaunaRun. We also have a bowling ally in town too called the WaunaBowl. So, I am not sure which came first either in this aspect too.