The last year or so has been pretty quiet for me in terms of fancy dress/dressing up activities but the last month or so is a huge exception. I had a friends 21st (theme: Vintage Cruise), Bestival (theme: Space) and two weeks ago, http://www.goodwood.co.uk/site/content/revival/ (theme: 40’s,50’s and 60’s). A weekend of dressing up in the finest vintage clothing was something that excited me greatly and I was there representing Vintage at Goodwood, a new event featuring the best in popular culture from 1940-1089, which will take place on the Goodwood estate over the weekend of 13th,14th and 15th August 2010. Vintage were holding their taster event and had their own tent armed with waltzer chairs, a black and white checkered floor, a cocktail bar and a weird yet wonderful ‘mirrored shoe’ addition from Lost Vagueness.

Over the course of the weekend, Revival punters could stop off to dance to 1950’s rock n roll, 1960s northern soul, marvel at the Vintage fashion show with popular pin up model Fleur De Geurre, a burlesque dancer, various DJs and a eucalali player singing Vera Lynn classics (a trained pilot with a fantastic voice singing Vera Lynn numbers.) Some truly breathtaking sites with numerous vintage cars and airplanes and ongoing races and flying shows over the course of the weekend.

I was lucky enough to book into the Vintage Emporium hair salon to transform me into 40’s class on Saturday and 60’s hippy chick on the Sunday.

We were also very graciously accepted an invitation to Lord March’s ball on the Saturday evening. The theme; Seville. I was surprised to see a number of women wearing the same tacky (yet unrefined) flamenco dress that I had hurriedly ordered from eBay a few days before.

The event itself was expectantly extravagant, sponsored by Veuve Cliquot and we arrived to a fantastic Champagne entrance and a sight of a couple of donkeys being led around. All 1200 guests were ushered into the main dining room (a hanger converted into an outdoor Seville ‘al fresco’ eating experience.) I looked at the table and saw in front of me 6 glasses, one for each beverage that was served to us throughout the evening (sherry, white wine, Moet and Chandon champane, port, water and tea) and a range of cutlery. The food, not spectacular but pretty impressive to say it was 1200 people that had been catered for. The menu:

Starter: chorizo, salami, olives, roasted pimiento, fig and pea and edamame frittata

Main: grilled swordfish with roast yellow pepper and cherry tomato, battered potato (in the shape of a pear) in a sauce of tomato with butter beans and capers

Dessert: lemon brûlée with poached peach and donut with chocolate sauce

Then came a bowl of orange ice cream in dark chocolate balls on sticks and nougat. By this time taking photographs wasn’t the first thing on mind.

The entertainment for the evening was rather spectacular, indoor fireworks, a Spanish horse riding show, a Spanish salsa band and even a surprise show from two members of dire straights.

We left reasonably early, 12.30pm to rest our eyes before a 7am start on Sunday.

The weekend certainly gave me a taster for Vintage at Goodwood and I now can’t wait for the main event.