We have attended many festivals and shows this summer, so here is our reminiscence of RetroFest…
3 days of dance, decadence and days gone by…
We’ve always been interested in yesteryear, so when we had the opportunity to exhibit at Retro Festival, we jumped at the chance.
The new venue of Newbury Showground is home from home for us as we also exhibit at the Royal Berkshire County Show each September. Our set up day, Friday was thankfully dry and we managed to shimmy Dylan, Simba and a Morgan representing Richard Thorne’s self drive hire department onto the stand quite quickly. As Kevin dashed back to the yard to see vans in and out, Maxine and her friend Meta, wandered off to see who else was there. There were some beautiful clothing stalls, every era from 1940’s to 1970’s. But then we found the food tent setting up… A gin tasting session at the Silent Pool Distillery ensued – and very nice it was too…hic!
One of the great things about Retro Festival is the music on offer. 3 tents to be precise. A Vintage tent with 1940’s music; after watching the amazing dancing in the 50’s music tent, we wandered over to the Ricky Tick 60’s stage, where The Small Fakers were performing. We were soon joined by Kev, who promptly began to bounce around the dance floor like Tigger on blue smarties.
When we got back to the pitch at 11pm, it dawned on us that we hadn’t actually got round to setting up our sleeping arrangements. Oops. We hadn’t put Simba’s roof tent up before, but there’s nothing like putting yourself in the customer’s shoes. Needless to say, it popped up like a favourite old storybook and we were in our pjs, tucked up in our sleeping bags by 11.45pm.
Saturday’s weather warmed up nicely and after another visit to the food tent (oh my word the flapjacks from The Wilde Bakery and pork pies from Rose Cottage Pantry were a-ma-zing) we were ready to meet our public. A busy day ensued and we decided to try out the Cabaret show in the Vintage tent for that evening’s entertainment. Having only brought Kev’s Kampers promotional clothing with her, Maxine didn’t need much of an excuse to pop across to TODO Clothing and pick out a new frock for the occasion. Everything from magic, to burlesque and harmonised singing made for a very pleasant time.
Sunday came round and after a fry up in Dylan, we were ready to meet the day. Kev dashed off again to see Enzo and Hermione back in, so Maxine took care of the stand. Tea was shipped in by Bunny, bringing much needed supplies in the form of burgers and sausages (vegetarian option available). Back to the 60’s tent in the evening for another northern soul session with The Flicks playing live. The weekend’s partying was rounded off with a sing-song round the Phoenix Dubs’ camp fire.
Early Monday, it was Maxine’s turn to dash off to see Freddie in safely, leaving Kevin to load up Dylan on a trailer, (as wonderful as Kev is, he can only drive one thing at a time). Said trailer was kindly supplied by Lovell’s Trailers and Simba towed him home.
A great weekend all round – we’ll be doing that show again! See you all next year 🙂
