Walking into Vintage at Goodwood you can tell this isn’t going to be any ordinary festival. For starters, you make your entrance via a red carpet. And if that isn’t enough there’s the real vintage high street complete with John Lewis, traditional pub and policemen chasing naughty schoolboys. You’ll also notice that on the wall of fame, where the festival’s best dressed can hope to find their photograph, 1950s style skirt suits, tuxedos, and elaborately coiffed hair outnumber the denim-shorts-and-wellies uniform of most festivals ten to one. This is because Vintage at Goodwood is the brainchild of two entrepreneurial designers, Gerardine Hemingway MBE and Wayne Hemingway MBE, co-owners of ‘Britain’s premier collection of cultural artefacts’, and Lord March, the brains behind Goodwood Festival of Speed and Goodwood Revival – and, as anyone who has ever been to one of these events knows, he certainly doesn’t do things by halves.
It’s hard to describe the atmosphere of the festival as there’s just so much going on. Dance troop performances spring up every now and then in front of shops and on the red carpet. If it’s raining, you can escape by watching Bugsy Malone in the cinema or grab a bite to eat in the Tanqueray Torch Club. There’s the huge red Pimm’s bus at one side of the field, and the 80s Audi Quattro Warehouse club at the other. Kids could the first day, mess around on the water bed – quite simply a giant (think swimming pool sized) orange water bed plonked next to the Leisure dome – or be entertained by the redcoats in the 50s style Butlins. You could enjoy a makeover in the Beauty Box salon (if you didn’t mind queuing out the door) or watch leather clad bikers zoom around the Wall of Death.
There was, of course, also the music. You could boogie on down to the best of British funk, soul and reggae in the Soul Casino, or enjoy a pint and have a go at the karaoke in the traditional pub. On the main stage bands like the Faces and the Buzzcocks wowed audiences with their sets and remarkable ability to keep their hair despite a good few decades of rock-and-roll lifestyle.
The defining feature of Vintage at Goodwood was, however, the fashion and design. You simply couldn’t go without dressing up. The attention to detail was fantastic – each area was compiled by an expert curator dedicated to their era (see videos here). Everyone entered into the spirit of the event – from stallholders who managed three days of mud in court shoes, to festival goers who managed to pull together immaculate outfits each day in their soggy tents! Queuing for my free makeover, I got chatting to an Adam Ant – also waiting to have his makeup done. Elaborately dressed, he worried that his outfit wasn’t quite up to scratch. That’s how high the standards were. However, the festival wasn’t snobbish – disco studs in joke shop wigs and medallions rubbed shoulders with ladies in vintage Chanel suits and the exact shade of lipstick that was popular in 1955. It retained the ultimately eclectic, welcoming vibe that a festival has – making Vintage accessible for those just out for a laugh and a go in the roller disco, as well as keeping the dedicated vintage lovers more than satisfied.
By Amy Sandiford-Watts
