It’s March, which means it’s time to start drooling over the SXSW lineup and stare longingly at Austin’s dreamy weather forecasts while constantly refreshing Skyscanner to see if flight prices have magically dropped. This year, our editor-at-large Rachel Wharton will be flying south to that fabled festival to explain and defend the Brooklyn maker movement as part of their SouthBites series.
She’s written about the movement for the Wall Street Journal and participated in a panel discussing Brooklyn’s branding back in January. The Texas talk will be presented in panel format alongside Forbes Fisher of Steve’s Ice Cream, dietician Nicki Briggs, and Brooklyn Brine’s Seamus Jones. “Our panel will touch on many things: how to grow your food business and keep your integrity, how the Brooklyn scene is fostering producers and infrastructure here and elsewhere, why it’s happening now and why Brooklyn.”
The topic was chosen by popular demand, and other festival panels include “You Can’t Sit With Us: Craft Beer Subculture” and “Franchise: A Food Truck Evolution.” At last month’s panel, audience members brought up questions about inclusivity in the food movement and the potential for the movement to give way to another cultural trend. “These are good questions, and I’m curious to see if attendees in Austin will raise the same issue,” Rachel told us.
So if you find yourself in Austin on March 14 at 11:00 a.m., take a short break from religiously following South By Free Noms (the free food guide to the festival) and listen to some of Brooklyn’s finest makers ask themselves what the movement means.
