This summer, FLORA joins The Standard, Brussels for the second edition of the Open Air Series at The Rooftop Garden.
Founded by two long-time friends, FLORA is looking to diversify the way you experience Belgian beer, elevating the taste of your favourite terrace drink by brewing it with various flowers. The Belgian natives did not want to stop at beer and instead created a recognisable universe around shared experiences and daytime culture which range from events to artistic collaborations.
Ahead of their rooftop takeover on July 11, we caught up with one of the co-founders of FLORA Thibault, to talk about building the brand, future direction, and our collaboration.
For people discovering FLORA for the first time, how would you describe your brand and the world you’ve built around it?
Flora is a Brussels-based art and music collective founded in June 2024, with the ambition of bringing a new perspective to the city's cultural landscape. Operating at the intersection of visual art and electronic music, the collective curates events and exhibitions that foster a dialogue between sound and artistic expression. Deeply committed to championing local talent, Flora positions itself as a platform dedicated to highlighting and elevating the Brussels creative scene. Central to Flora's identity is a flower-infused beer project, which serves as a unifying thread across its creative endeavors, transforming each experience into something at once cultural and creative.
Your beers brewed with flowers break away from the Belgian beer industry norms customers are used to. What sparked this idea originally and what bigger role do you feel your flowers play in the universe you’ve created?
The idea came from a desire to create something that felt distinctly different from the traditional Belgian beer landscape. Belgium has an incredible brewing heritage, but many breweries still rely on the same ingredients, styles, and storytelling. We wanted to explore a new creative territory, one that could connect with art & modern culture. (While style being a beer project at the start) At the same time, we were witnessing a new generation of florists pushing the boundaries of their craft, creating bold, contemporary works that felt closer to art and design than to the traditional floral arrangements often associated with old French châteaux. We saw a clear opportunity to celebrate and promote this modern floral movement through our project, giving it a platform alongside our beers and the wider Flora universe.
In what ways do you feel like FLORA has helped to connect you to the cultural industries and what inspired the interest in the connection?
FLORA's connection to the cultural industries began with its design. Many people perceive the can as a beautiful object before they see it as a beer, which helped it resonate with creative communities. Art galleries were among the first to serve FLORA at exhibition openings instead of champagne, and this quickly led to interest from production companies, fashion brands, and agencies, particularly during events such as Paris Fashion Week.
The Standard, Brussels has quickly become a meeting point for culture, hospitality and creative communities in the city. What made this collaboration feel like a natural fit for FLORA and what do you hope attendees will be able to take away from the event?
The collaboration with The Standard felt like a natural fit because, although it is still a relatively young project in Brussels, it shares many of the same ambitions as FLORA. Both of us are driven by a desire to do things differently, to innovate, and to create meaningful experiences rather than simply offering a product or a service.
What we particularly admire is how The Standard is building a bridge between hospitality, culture, and art, something that has always been central to FLORA's vision as well. Bringing our two worlds together felt like an obvious opportunity to celebrate the creative energy of Brussels and the communities that make the city so vibrant.
What we particularly admire is how The Standard is building a bridge between hospitality, culture, and art, something that has always been central to FLORA's vision as well. Bringing our two worlds together felt like an obvious opportunity to celebrate the creative energy of Brussels and the communities that make the city so vibrant.
FLORA is still quite a new brand, with lots of exciting potential. What’s coming up for the brand in the near future?
We've been fortunate to receive a lot of interest and opportunities over the past months, so right now we're taking the time to properly structure the project and build strong foundations for the future.
We have several exciting collaborations in the pipeline, and we're also seeing significant traction in Paris, where the brand has been particularly well received. As a result, we're currently exploring how we can develop a more permanent presence and create meaningful projects there.
On the cultural side, we have a number of upcoming events through FLORA Radio, which remains an important platform for our connection to music. Music has been a major focus for us so far, and that's something we'll continue to invest in.
At the same time, we're increasingly looking to develop the artistic side of the project. We've had the chance to collaborate with respected names such as Almine Rech, COLLECTIBLE, and Ceramic Brussels, but our ambition is now to move beyond partnerships and further develop our own curatorial and artistic projects. We'd love to start producing our own exhibitions and creating original cultural programming, with the goal of being recognized not only as a brewery that approaches things differently, but as a genuine creative collective operating at the intersection of beer, art, music, and culture.
We have several exciting collaborations in the pipeline, and we're also seeing significant traction in Paris, where the brand has been particularly well received. As a result, we're currently exploring how we can develop a more permanent presence and create meaningful projects there.
On the cultural side, we have a number of upcoming events through FLORA Radio, which remains an important platform for our connection to music. Music has been a major focus for us so far, and that's something we'll continue to invest in.
At the same time, we're increasingly looking to develop the artistic side of the project. We've had the chance to collaborate with respected names such as Almine Rech, COLLECTIBLE, and Ceramic Brussels, but our ambition is now to move beyond partnerships and further develop our own curatorial and artistic projects. We'd love to start producing our own exhibitions and creating original cultural programming, with the goal of being recognized not only as a brewery that approaches things differently, but as a genuine creative collective operating at the intersection of beer, art, music, and culture.
At what point did Flora stop being "a beer project" and start becoming a cultural project?
I think the shift happened around spring 2025, almost a year after launching the brand. From the beginning, we had been organizing music-related events, but at that point we started to realize that FLORA had the potential to be much more than a beer project.
We've always believed that if someone is tasting a FLORA for the first time, it should happen in the right setting. The product is important, but so is the experience surrounding it. Early on, we spent a lot of time approaching bars and restaurants, but we gradually decided to place a much stronger emphasis on events, floral installations, and collaborations with art galleries, fashion shows, and other cultural spaces.
That was the moment FLORA began evolving from a beverage brand into a cultural project. We became less focused on simply finding points of sale and more interested in creating environments, experiences, and collaborations that reflected the wider universe we wanted to build around the brand.
We've always believed that if someone is tasting a FLORA for the first time, it should happen in the right setting. The product is important, but so is the experience surrounding it. Early on, we spent a lot of time approaching bars and restaurants, but we gradually decided to place a much stronger emphasis on events, floral installations, and collaborations with art galleries, fashion shows, and other cultural spaces.
That was the moment FLORA began evolving from a beverage brand into a cultural project. We became less focused on simply finding points of sale and more interested in creating environments, experiences, and collaborations that reflected the wider universe we wanted to build around the brand.
What's a moment from the last year that made you think, "Okay, this is becoming something bigger than us"?
Honestly, I don’t think we’re at a point where we can say it has become “bigger than us” yet. It still very much feels like a project we are actively shaping and pushing forward.
That said, there have been a few defining moments. Working with institutions like Almine Rech and Patinoire Royale – Galerie Valérie Bach was definitely one of them. These are established references in the art world, and seeing FLORA enter those spaces made us realize there was real potential behind what we were building.
Another key moment was our first large-scale open air event. We received authorization from the city only nine days before the event, and it was the first time we had attempted something of that scale. We ended up selling out 1,200 people, which was a strong validation of the direction we were taking and the community forming around the project.
That said, there have been a few defining moments. Working with institutions like Almine Rech and Patinoire Royale – Galerie Valérie Bach was definitely one of them. These are established references in the art world, and seeing FLORA enter those spaces made us realize there was real potential behind what we were building.
Another key moment was our first large-scale open air event. We received authorization from the city only nine days before the event, and it was the first time we had attempted something of that scale. We ended up selling out 1,200 people, which was a strong validation of the direction we were taking and the community forming around the project.
You're curating the line-up, what will make it distinctively "Flora"?
The line-up is very much rooted in the local scene, mainly Belgian artists. There is a strong house foundation that defines FLORA as a collective, which has become part of our identity, but our strength is also in bringing together DJs from different collectives and backgrounds.
We open with Donna Bummer, whose sound is very house and disco-oriented, and who regularly plays at Traum in Antwerp. Then we move into Oko Stellar, an artist we’ve tried to book several times before, initially recommended to us by DTM Funk. He’ll be playing a B2B with Jo G from the Croak collective, which brings an interesting crossover of influences.
To close, we stay within house but shift towards faster, more energetic sets with Melissa Juice and Kathleen C, both emerging from the Brussels queer electronic scene and increasingly making a name for themselves in the local scene.
We open with Donna Bummer, whose sound is very house and disco-oriented, and who regularly plays at Traum in Antwerp. Then we move into Oko Stellar, an artist we’ve tried to book several times before, initially recommended to us by DTM Funk. He’ll be playing a B2B with Jo G from the Croak collective, which brings an interesting crossover of influences.
To close, we stay within house but shift towards faster, more energetic sets with Melissa Juice and Kathleen C, both emerging from the Brussels queer electronic scene and increasingly making a name for themselves in the local scene.
FLORA takes over The Rooftop Garden at The Standard, Brussels on Friday July 11 as part of the Open Air Series.
Expect great music, sunset views, an opportunity to try FLORA’s beers and one of Brussels’ most exciting communities gathering 29 floors above the city.
See you upstairs – RSVP here
