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Melbourne's Out on the Weekend festival celebrates Americana music, food and drink

Veda Gilbert

Circling the wagons: Melbourne's king of street food, Raph Rashid.
Circling the wagons: Melbourne's king of street food, Raph Rashid.Max Olijnyk

It may have been less than a year in the planning but for Brian 'BT' Taranto, Out on the Weekend has been 30 years coming. Taranto has spent more than three decades on the festival circuit and believes he's got the formula right for the inaugural Williamstown-based country music festival, which takes its name from track one of Neil Young's 1972 album Harvest.

Taranto describes Out on the Weekend as a mash-up of the Newport Folk Festival, San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival and all the other good-time events you've ever been to. Aside from a line-up of artists that includes Justin Townes Earle, Henry Wagons, and Raised By Eagles, he's enlisted the culinary talents of close friends and fellow music lovers Ben Milgate and Elvis Abrahanowicz, of Sydney's Bodega and Porteno, and Melbourne's king of street food, Raph Rashid.

"When this event came to hand I thought of no one else but these guys to be here," Taranto says. "There's always been a niche group of people that support the Americana scene, though it's never really got to huge numbers. But I can feel a swing happening now, and while I wouldn't directly relate it to the growth of the American-style food scene, it's certainly helping."

Texan style: Ben Milgate and Elvis Abrahanowicz from Sydney's Porteno and Bodega will be bringing their take on Americana to the Out on the Weekend festival.
Texan style: Ben Milgate and Elvis Abrahanowicz from Sydney's Porteno and Bodega will be bringing their take on Americana to the Out on the Weekend festival.Marco Del Grande
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Milgate and Abrahanowicz believe good food and good music go hand in hand. Having previously been ambassadors of Chow Town at the Big Day Out, a concept inspired by Chicago's Lollapalooza festival, they'll be serving up smoked meat dishes in Williamstown, albeit without their signature Argentine spin. .

"The Big Day Out was a great learning experience for us," Milgate says. "A lot of people thought that people weren't going to eat at a festival like that, but we showed that people do want to eat great food and listen to great music. They want quality offerings."

The tattoo-covered, cowhide-loving duo are embracing the Americana theme with Texas-style 16-hour smoked brisket and pork belly cooked in a custom-made smoker. They're also offering a Banana Old Fashioned, their signature cocktail from Gardel's Bar, comprising banana-infused Jack Daniel's with smoked maple syrup.

Rashid, who's providing a combination of food trucks and stands, including Beatbox Kitchen and All Day Donuts, believes the American elements in food work well with the Americana scene.

"I think it's great when new things happen and people that have been into these little subcultures finally get to come together with everyone else," Rashid says.

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Prices start at $6 for a taco to $20 for a mixed plate, with drinks at $6 for a beer to $12 for a cocktail. One band will play at a time, rotating between the two stages, and there's only one foreseen problem. .

"There's not a lot of places for people to sit down,because we want you to get up, walk around, try the food, try the booze, and check out the bands."

Bodega/Porteno

Ben Milgate and Elvis Abrahanowicz will be serving beef brisket marinated in Jack Daniel's with slaw and barbecue sauce, pork belly, and chorizo (or try all three with the mixed plate offering).

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Raph Rashid

The king of Melbourne street food will offer grass-fed beef or portobello mushroom burgers from Beatbox Kitchen, and contemporary tacos from Taco Truck. The newest addition to Rashid's food truck brigade, RB's Fried Chicken, will serve a fried chicken sandwich with slaw and pickle on jalapeno cheese bread. Plus All Day Donuts with 7 Seeds filter coffee.

Wet your whistle

A selection of craft beer, tap beer, wine, spirits, cocktails and non-alcoholic options including abanana old fashioned, Herradura margarita, and wine from Dixons Creek Estate.

Out on the Weekend, Saturday, October 18, Seaworks, 82 Nelson Place, Williamstown, outontheweekend.com.au. Tickets $99; children under 12 free with a person 18+.

Want to win two tickets to the festival? Make up an Americana album title with a food theme and email your entry with full name and contact details to: epicure@theage.com.au with the subject field 'Out on the Weekend'. Full terms and conditions here.

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