🌍 Pitching a future for festivals ⛺
Why what we do in - and with - a tent makes a difference
Welcome to BRiMM, the collective, journal and planet-positive shop that’s here to help you live a lower-impact life, without life feeling less
Before we get into it, here’s what’s new in the world of BRiMM:
Another BRiMM community event is just around the corner. Stitch & Bitch, hosted by the icon, pioneer and co-founder of Fashion Revolution and Esthetica, Orsola de Castro. The event will bring together curious minds to explore the quiet radicalism of visual mending over a shared table. It’s on Tuesday 23 September at The Meeting House in Peckham, London, and starts at 6.30pm. Get your tickets now.
Our members get priority booking and special member pricing, so to be the first to hear about our in-person community events, join BRiMM to get exclusive info before everyone else.
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This week’s theme is… What should you do with a tent? ⛺
It’s nearly the bank holiday weekend! One of the last hurrahs of the summer. Which means that many of us will be getting out and making the most of the opportunity to sleep under the stars, whether camping, glamping or getting comfy in a yurt. And while going off-grid and getting connected to nature is undoubtedly a brilliant way to appreciate the world around us, not all camping is created equal. Or come to that, eco. We’re looking at you, festivals.
Festivals - however good their intentions - come with myriad environmental issues, and just one of those is the enormous amount of plastic waste. It is estimated that around 250,000 tents are discarded at festivals each year. Tents are made from nylon and polyester, aka plastic, which takes hundreds, if not thousands of years to decompose. Last year alone at the Reading Festival, which takes place again this bank holiday weekend, a whopping 71 tonnes of tents were left behind; 9 tonnes less than the previous year, sure, but still an unfathomable amount of avoidable waste that, as the festival states on its own website, is not recycled.
Thankfully there are innovative people tackling this issue, like Decathlon, whose No Tent Left Behind scheme encourages customers to return their tent at the end of the season in return for store credit. These tents then become part of Decathlon’s Second Life range, which makes outdoor gear affordable for more people. It also has a tent repairs and spare parts service, as does Mountain Equipment: incredibly handy for those who do actually want to hang onto their camping gear for as long as possible. Meanwhile, ReTribe (see below) makes bags in Sheffield from discarded tents, and even the BBC’s Great British Sewing Bee upcycled tents into garments in last week’s episode with some great results. Of course, if people just took their tents home with them, we wouldn’t have this problem in the first place, but here we are.
Many festivals also encourage fancy dress, which inevitably comes with rivers of sequins, glitter and face jewels. All of these things are more often than not made from plastic, and come with the added complication that they fall off the wearer, making it impossible to clear it up from the landscape once revellers have shed their sparkles and gone home. Microplastics on farmland and in natural waterways, anyone? We’re not party poopers, but we’d love to see more initiatives like Glastonbury’s, which has gone one step further than its initial ban of non-biodegradable glitter and has banned it completely. Imagine if people decorated themselves with fresh flowers instead! It would be blooming lovely.
And things are improving across the board. Many of the mainstream festivals now encourage cup collection and have water stations, as well as good recycling bins for everything other than camping equipment. But as usual, it’s the independents that are doing it best, some of which just so happen to also be taking place this coming weekend. There’s Between The Trees in South Wales, which is nature themed and has a wholesome acoustic line-up, while Into The Wild in West Sussex has a host of craft, dance, yoga and foraging workshops, just an hour outside London. And our personal favourite is Shambala Festival in Northamptonshire, but more on that later.
So whether you’re festival or campsite-bound for the end of this summer, take a moment to appreciate that fresh outdoor air and, above all, leave no trace.
Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,
BRiMM x
This week, we sent Conrad Quilty-Harper of Dark Luxury to explore the world of goat and deer leather at pioneering Billy Tannery on the Leicestershire border. Founder Jack Millington began the initiative as a side project when he learned thousands of British goatskins were being incinerated as waste, and has since become one of the UK’s only functioning tanneries. He now works with farmers, rewilding estates and restaurants to turn discarded hides into soft, characterful leathers, used in everything from place mats to handbags.
How and why we assess brands and products
We want to empower our community to make more positive product and brand choices. That’s how we know you can feel good about buying them.
We also want you to know exactly how we do it. For example, we sell products and brands that are independently certified or recognised as being better for the planet or people. Ideally both. We will be transparent about the standards each product meets and, in the future, plan to provide a ‘footprint’ for every product we sell, so that our members (hopefully that’s you - if not, get involved) can make fully informed decisions.
There’s a lot that goes into the process. And we want to tell you all about it so you can enjoy our products and brands with peace of mind. Find out more over on our Journal.
The BRiMM Life Questionnaire: Karen Prado
This week we caught up with Karen Prado, co-founder of Chimi Love, the authentic South American fusion sauces. Colombia-born Karen and her partner Jacques use responsibly sourced ingredients to make their sauces right here in the UK, and you’ll find their excellent Chimichurri sauce in our Pantry Essentials Reset Box.
Song that lights you up and the story behind it
“‘Yellow’ by Coldplay. Every time I hear this song; it takes me back to a meditation retreat I did. That line, ‘Look at the stars, look how they shine for you’, feels like a quiet reminder that love, presence and beauty are always there, even when we’re too busy to notice. There’s something spiritual about the whole song. Like a mantra, repeating in a way that feels grounding, like someone saying, ‘I would do anything for you,’ not to impress, but for love. Even the word YELLOW doesn’t feel like a colour to me, it feels like a mood. Warmth. Stillness. Light. Like golden hour for the soul.”
Causes you support each month
“We proudly support Just One Tree by donating for every jar we sell. We also partner with Pineapple Women, a small nonprofit organisation founded and run by a Colombian woman. Their mission is to empower girls aged 14 to 25 by helping them find their voice, access resources to become creators and start their dream careers. My personal role is to mentor these young women, helping them build resilience, believe in themselves and overcome their fears.”
Issue you care most about changing
“The overuse of plastic and polystyrene, especially single-use plastics in food packaging. It is a major environmental problem.”
Do you have a message you’d love to share with the collective?
“I came to London from Colombia 25 years ago, without speaking the language, carrying a heart full of flavours and traditions. London, a city of many cultures, opened its arms and heart to me and became my first home. Chimi Love is a celebration of that journey. We are proof that being different is powerful, that food is a universal language and that community is everything. Build bridges. Share meals. Support each other. That’s how we all rise.”
The full interview with Karen will be live on our Journal soon - in the meantime, check out our latest full Q&A with Chris Torpey of the brilliant Future Yard music venue in Birkenhead.
FROM THE COLLECTIVE
Hannah is obsessed with these modified espadrilles on Instagram - perfect for a gripping game of pétanque
Matt is planning on grabbing tickets for ‘The Listening Room’ Street Party, the first event at the SLOWE Living pop-up showroom in King’s Cross
Botanical Boys caught Becky’s eye, which sells rustic planters and pots as well as running workshops to build your own terrarium
We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with us in our Substack chat or send us an email
THIS WEEK’S LINK RECCOS
CIRCLE LINE
With their line of upcycled accessories, ReTribe has so far saved 450 tents from landfill. They rework them in their Sheffield workshop, transforming unwanted nylon into handy hiking and outdoor accessories like sling bags and chalk buckets for bouldering. They also make to order, which means that none of their waste materials go to, err, waste.
→ GRAB A BAG
WAY OUT FEST
So many of the BRiMM collective have been to Shambala Festival - and LOVED it - that we had to give it a mention. It describes itself as “the most fiercely independent, seriously silly, wildly creative party in a field” and “completely and utterly committed to being sustainable, circular, regenerative, net positive, earth and life respecting, and future thinking.” Oh, and it’s powered by 100% renewable energy, too. What’s not to love about that? It’s from 21-24 August with a fantastic line-up and there are still a few tickets left…
→ FIND OUT MORE
SLOW BURNER
We’d love to try a Wonderbag while camping - just bring your one-pot meal to the boil, then place it inside the bag, where it will continue to cook for up to eight hours without the use of any power. A very chic slow cooker, if you will. The best bit? Wonderbag is also a social enterprise that helps communities struggling to afford or access power to cook without it.
→ TRY THIS WONDER
VIETNAMESE BBQED TOFU
We recently made this Vietnamese griddled tofu by bestselling food author Rukmini Iyer and our guests raved about it. It’s a really simple and outrageously tasty vegan option. Just dress the tofu in sesame oil (make sure you pick firm tofu to avoid it falling apart over the coals) and serve with BBQed tomatoes and a squeeze of lime. A brilliant veggie alternative to the ubiquitous grilled halloumi.
→ MAKE ME
STUDIO TUNES
Our very own Helen Kirkum, who leads our socials (both digital and in-person), has put together this week’s playlist, which she blasts out when she’s busy making new trainers out of old ones in her studio (she’s busy, is Helen). And if you missed them, you can read Helen’s planet-positive tips over on our Journal.
The carbon footprint of an email depends what device you use to open it, but sending you this one used about 3.5g of carbon.
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I love Shambala but the dress up thing is so depressing when you see all the plastic feather boas and glitter everywhere. There are always amazing costumes though which is part of its appeal - it's just like they havent quite got the sustainability memo when it comes to clothes. A few Glasto like rules would help...
I love the transparency on what you look for in products. Very detailed!
Also, I never thought about tents being thrown away. I’ve had mine for over 10 years.