We caught up with Brawn and Brownswood to take a deep dive into the vision for Brawnswood – the festival concept that combines great food and music – and find out what’s in store for this year’s programme.
Brawnswood is our collaboration between East London neighbourhood restaurant Brawn – set up by Ed Wilson and Josie Stead – and Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings.
Now in its 5th year, the collaboration reflects Ed & Gilles’ shared affinity for great food, wine and music, creating a space at the festival that offers quality food and drink, exceptional music programming and a relaxing, comfortable place to hang out over the weekend.
At Brawnswood, Brawn delivers the food and drink, Brownswood delivers the music programming and the incredible setting of Wimborne St. Gilles does the rest. Hosted in our expansive stretch tent is a dining area, coffee bar, wine bar, sound system and live performance stage.
“Once again our restaurant will be open all day from 8 am serving coffee and an unbeatable breakfast menu, including the famous Egg Rancheros, until 1 pm. In the mornings you’ll also find Ed playing some records with some special friends. The bar runs from 11am until 2am, serving a curated list of natural wine, cocktails, beer, cider and no/low alcoholic drinks.
A new addition: this year the Brawnswood restaurant concept will be centred around a wood-fired oven with an Italian-inspired menu in collaboration with Chef Ry Jessup. Serving from 2pm until 10pm, the menu features a shortlist of seasonal ingredient-focused pizzas alongside fresh salads, fried snacks and rumours of the famous Brawn tiramisu. The menu will be paired with a wine list filled with bottles to fit the summer weather.”
“Last year’s introduction of live music to the tent was seminal. Having big Main Stage acts like Galliano, Jimetta Rose and The Voices of Creation and Brian Jackson alongside emerging bands like Oreglo perform on our little stage provided some truly memorable moments.”
This year’s musical menu promises more unmissable intimate sessions…Keep an eye out for the programme as we launch this over the next few months.
Another key piece to the collaboration is mixed-media artist Josephine Chime: responsible for Brawnswood’s eye-catching design and tent decor. Combining patterns and bold shapes with her firm belief in food and music’s ability to bring people together and connect, her designs use large bold faces combined with culinary symbols to visually amplify these motifs. She creates a dialogue through the iconic profiles, with bright yellow hands and feet reflecting the mad shapes people make when listening to good music.
In this year’s designs, Josephine will continue to bring a sense of joyous wonder and lightness into the space to help encourage love and appreciation for the people behind the decks and on stage. With her love for colour, unexpected shapes and clashing textures, expect lots of vibrant patterns and vivid details – bringing the energy and fun features of the bold outdoor Brawnswood art installation into the tent’s design.
Ahead of the launch of this year’s food and musical programme, the owner of Brawn Ed Wilson has lovingly crafted a playlist of Brawn restaurant favourites which you can expect to hear across the weekend and as part of his morning selector sets each day.
Dig in, and get ready for hazy days sitting back, surrounded by great food, drink and sounds at Brawnswood.
