The Brandywine Festival glowing under a golden sunset
✦ Applications Closed · Brandywine Festival 2026 ✦

The People Who Build
The Shire

Applications for 2026 have now closed. Our heritage artisans, acoustic Irish folk performers and food & product vendors are set — and together they'll fill the meadow at Weston Park with craft, music and good things this September.

📅 9–13 September 2026 📍 Weston Park, Telford 🔒 Applications closed for 2026
See the Three Roles ↓ Ask a Question
A World Made by Many Hands

Be Part of the Magic

The Brandywine Festival is a living, breathing corner of Middle-earth — and it's built by the people in it. From the ring of a blacksmith's hammer to a fiddle tune drifting across the meadow to a stall heaped with pies and treasures, our makers, musicians and traders are what make The Shire feel real. Applications for 2026 are now closed — here's a look at the three callings that bring it all together.

⚒️ Artisans 🎻 Performers 🛍️ Vendors
Three Ways to Join Us

The Three Callings

Applications for 2026 have closed, so these three roles are now filled. If you'd like to be considered for 2027, keep an eye on our newsletter and Discord — that's where the next call goes out first.

A maker demonstrating a traditional craft on the meadow
⚒️

Heritage Artisans

Keepers of the old crafts

We're seeking artisans working in the heritage crafts of the 15th–18th centuries — everything from blacksmithing to basketweaving. Come and demonstrate your craft on the green, share the making of it with curious Hobbits, and offer your wares at the Artisan Market.

  • Blacksmithing & metalwork
  • Woodturning & greenwood
  • Leatherwork
  • Weaving & spinning
  • Basketry
  • Pottery
  • Candlemaking
  • Calligraphy & scribing
  • Herbalism & apothecary
  • …and kindred crafts
🎭 Presented fully in-world. Costumed, in the Hobbit spirit and aesthetic, with a period-appropriate stall — you'll be part of the living story, not just beside it.
Applications Closed
A smiling fiddle player in a flower crown at golden hour
🎻

Acoustic Irish Folk Performers

The sound of The Shire

We're after acoustic Irish & Celtic folk musicians to carry the day from mid-morning to the firelit night — stage sets, wandering tunes in the lanes, and intimate hearthside sessions as dusk falls. Solo players, duos and full bands all welcome.

  • Fiddle
  • Tin whistle & flute
  • Bodhrán
  • Guitar
  • Mandolin & banjo
  • Harp
  • Concertina & box
  • Reels & Jigs
🌿 Acoustic, and in keeping with The Shire. Warm, foot-tapping folk that suits a Hobbit gathering — nothing amplified or modern.
Applications Closed
Guests sharing food and drink at the festival market
🛍️

Food & Product Vendors

Fill the market with good things

Two kinds of trader keep our market humming — those who feed the festival, and those who sell the treasures Hobbits carry home. Both are welcome, and each has its own home in The Shire.

🍲 Food Vendors

Hearty pies, roasted fare, fresh bakes, warming broths, sweet treats and good drink. No in-character presentation needed — food traders sit outside the story, so just bring wonderful food (rustic, period-feeling styling is always a bonus, never a requirement).

🛍️ Product Vendors

Candles, leatherwork, trinkets, textiles, pottery, keepsakes and curiosities for the Artisan Market. Presented in the in-world / in-game style — a themed, period-appropriate stall dressed in the Hobbit spirit, so your stall feels part of the world.

Applications Closed
Why Join Us

A Rare Kind of Audience

🎪

A Captive, Costumed Crowd

Guests arrive dressed as Hobbits, in the mood to wander, watch, taste and buy — and they stay all day. There's no better audience for a maker, a musician or a trader.

🌾

A Beautiful Setting

The meadows and woodland of Weston Park, one of England's finest estates, dressed as a living Shire. It's a setting that makes your craft look — and feel — like magic.

🤝

A Community That Returns

Our artisans, players and performers come back year after year. Join us once and you're part of the family — and part of the story we tell together.

Applications are closed for 2026

We only have room for a small number of makers, musicians and traders, and every space for this September is now filled. Thank you to everyone who applied — we'll open the next call ahead of the 2027 festival, announced first in our newsletter and on Discord. Questions in the meantime? Just drop us a line and we'll help.

Dancers in the golden light of evening as the bands play
Weston Park · 9–13 September 2026

The Shire Is Cast

Applications for 2026 have now closed — our artisans, performers and vendors are set. Thank you to everyone who put themselves forward. Watch our newsletter and Discord for the 2027 call.

Applications Closed Ask a Question