Sunday Soul Brunch

Sunday Soul Brunch has become a beloved tradition here at Collective and though this event, which ties good music, good food, good conversation, and good company together with the thread of spirituality, is on hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic, we hope to share what makes this event so special for us and the downtown DeLand community with a little bit of history, some reflection, and a video or two.

What is Sunday Soul Brunch? Hosted in partnership with Cafe DaVinci, Sunday Soul Brunch is an informal music driven brunch service. These services emphasize life, meaning, and soul. Getting together to enjoy live music and delicious food brings people together and sets the table for soul: experiences of and conversations about the things that matter most.
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That’s the short version of it anyway. For Collective, these get moments together go back to 2013 and our first year in operation. Not quite Sunday Soul Brunch as it would be, the first Collective Easter service, with music provided by our own Mike Furlong and Robbie Carelli, was a community experience shared at Cafe DaVinci and, with some tweaking, would be the model for one of the ways that our Collective community connects with our DeLand home. That first event established a tradition for us. Collective and Cafe DaVinci would go on to host an Easter event together every subsequent year, with the first official Sunday Soul Brunch launching in 2016. If not for the pandemic, we would’ve celebrated Easter together in the same way this year. 
You might be curious about the sound of Sunday Soul Brunch. Together, we have provided a stage for a variety of outstanding independent artists including Lauris Vidal, Jack Willow Jr., the Legendary JC’s, LUVU, the Lee Boys, Uproot Hootenanny, Fossil Creek Bluegrass, the Mud Flappers, Ben Prestage, Heather Lee and Jordan Wynn, Amy Alysia, Betty Fox, Beth McKee, Jessica Flood, and Albert Castiglia. It is our hope to bring both many of these artists and other talented performers to the Cafe DaVinci stage again in the future. 

While the music brings plenty of soul, you can’t have a successful brunch without delicious food. In the past, we have collaborated with Free-Wil Barbecue and Neighbors Artisan Taqueria. However, since opening, it’s been beloved DeLand restaurant the Table filling  brunch-goers’ plates. The Table always provides a delicious mix of Southern comfort food and breakfast favorites for Sunday Soul Brunch. Who can resist those incredible cheese grits? While we might not be able to enjoy the Sunday Soul Brunch experience right now, the Table does offer their own regular Sunday brunch, complete with many of the favorites that have graced our event menus. With their new outdoor space available, it might be the perfect time to go for a preview of what will be coming your way in the future.

With amazing music and incredible food, the bow on this package is tied by none other than our own Ben Collins, whose good words give us the opportunity to reflect inwardly and connect outwardly with the friends and family enjoying the moment with us. It is our hope that with time, we will be able to resume Sunday Soul Brunch so that we can share the kinds of sacred moments only found around a table with good music, good food, and good conversation.