A long period to cover, and a lot of high expectations to exceed.
This weekend, among the fabulous roaming hills of Goodwood, West Sussex a new festival was born. Vision of Wayne Hemingway (of Red or Dead fame) and Lord March a weekend of anything Vintage, music, clothing, cars, food… as Cole Porter said ‘Anything Goes…’ (no wait, that was the 20’s, dammit!)
However, I digress. The festival consisted of a pop up high street (anyone else see the design link to the High Street in Chichester?! Mock ‘cross’ and all) walking down the high street with British favourites from John Lewis, Body Shop and Doc Martins no less. With a few surprises (Primark, anyone?!) thrown in for good measure.
The outside of the vintage shopping experience was where the magic was happening however, lines of Vintage inspired stores as well as serious Vintage shops held their ground amongst the hungry bargain hunters and a few thunderstorms to boot (well it wouldn’t be the Great British Summertime without a little rain!)
A little further afield, and you found the musical stages and tents, old theme park rides, a roller disco, a vintage food market, including a Waitrose and even a skate park (which puzzled me mostly…) however, it was a fabulous set up with many things to do and see throughout the days.
There was some fabulous costumes, some serious Vintage outfits that had been researched down to the very thread of the garment and a few Vintage high street knock offs…
It is here I have my problem with the (newly) coined fashionable vintage term. Vintage clothing, is a pure love. It should be, I spent months researching into it and 10,000 words writing about it. However, the nasty high street replicas that appear to be popping up in these more recent years, are a slight bug-bear of mine. Including the fact that a few years ago you could find a decent piece of ‘second-hand’ clothing for a pretty decent price, now however, that same piece of ‘second-hand’ clothing has a new label of ‘vintage’ and the price has gone up two-thirds. I’m just wondering if we could bring back the term ‘retro’ and see if that has the same effect. The person who hit onto this ‘vintage’ trend was either pretty smart or opened the fashion world up to something I don’t think many would have predicted.
I shall at this point, step graciously down from my soap box, to comment on the fabulous range of music that was showcased at this festival, no less, The Faces are my firm favourite of the weekend and my appetite has been severely whetted for the ever imminent Reading Festival. However, it is The Feeling who I take my hat off to (well, if I was wearing one at this point, I would be taking it off..) I read somewhere, (quite possibly in the Times) that it is at points like this, when the economy is bad and the general mood of a country is low that a festival like this Vintage one is exactly what a nation needs to lift the mood (and at £55 for a day ticket, I would seriously hope it could!) however, The Feeling did a pretty awesome job of getting a field full of young and old(er) rocking away, however it wasn’t until Tony Christie came on to perform the classic(?!) ‘(Is This The Way To) Amarillo’ that the whole field was smiling, dancing and you could generally see the spirits of those who had been rained on and were cold and were probably pretty shattered, were lifted. (Even I have to admit, this cynical writer, who can’t stand that particular song, after years of bar work and months of Saturday nights, listening to said song, after it being requested many a time…)
To conclude, it was a fabulous event, damped only slightly by the typically British weather until the typically British attitude of old, to carry on regardless shone through. Definitely one I will revisit in the future. However, it will never take the place of the Goodwood Revival, the only True Vintage festival event.
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