By: Shane Bagot, Follow South Jersey Community Journalist
BARRINGTON, NJ — To celebrate their ten-year anniversary of opening up, Tonewood Brewing is partnering with Rising Sun Presents to have their first Island Jam Festival on Saturday, June 6. The Festival will be taking place at Cooper River Park in Camden County.
Tonewood Brewing is a craft brewery based in Camden County with two locations, Oakland and Barrington. The ten-year-old brewery is a family-owned and run business. Started by brothers Eli and Taylor Facchinei, they care deeply about the community, sustainability, and quality that goes into their work.
Eli Facchinei had been brewing beer in Southwestern Colorado in 2014, while Taylor was in college homebrewing his own product. The idea had long been there, but never pursued until Eli Facchinei got news that New Jersey had allowed breweries to operate more freely. It wasn’t long before they opened their Oakland location.
For Eli Facchinei, bringing the “mountain town” energy he experienced during his time in Colorado to South Jersey was an integral part of getting it right. It paid off as the brewery became a staple of the town, to the extent that they opened a second location in Barrington.
While the journey has been a lot for the brewery, trusting those around him and not stressing the little things have been important for Eli. He has been proud of the growth and standing of the business.
“As any business has its ups and downs. I’ve been fortunate having the people that work here, dedicated, passionate, awesome coworkers and staff. We’ve just kind of pushed through the adversities of COVID and a growing business that’s having a hard time meeting demand. Now as a maturing business, coming into ourselves and figuring out how we continue growing, how we continue supporting the people that work here, supporting the community. It’s been great,” said Eli Facchinei.
Just as important to the family as beer is, music is too. The name Tonewood is in reference to the building of musical instruments. Tonewood is the best quality wood to enhance sound quality, resonance, and tonal characteristics, according to Paul Reed Smith.
The Facchinei’s goal was to bring music and beer together. The brewery has free nationally touring live music frequently. Allowing customers to come in and be introduced to new original music while sipping a beer.
To bring the community together more and commemorate their anniversary, they had an idea for a music festival. Inspired by their uncle, who works with Into the Pines, previously named Camp Jam in the Pines, they had always wanted to put on an event like it.
From here, the brewery hopes to leverage the organic growth it has built for the festival going forward. To continue spreading the word of Tonewood and great live music. Most importantly for them, connecting with the community.
“We’re excited to see the people that we’ve met over the years here at the brewery, coming in, sharing pints, in the sun, on the river, enjoying live music and having a pint with them,” said Eli Facchinei.
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