Vintage 2011 – Inside the Royal Festival Hall

Now with added Sass!

Returning on Sunday for the ticketed areas within the Royal Festival Hall, Ms. Pink and myself were very glad to have completed the free Vintage High Street on Friday, as the crowds and heat were both a little too much for us…

We had debated buying tickets for a two-week run up to Vintage 2011, but when we realised that, through the Southbank box office, with the additional Revue ticket for the main auditorium 6.30pm onwards performances, each ticket would have cost us approx £140 EACH – We decided to wait and see. A good job we did, for upon Twitter the call went out… Time Out Deals! Time Out Deals! So we managed to snag a pair of tickets for £19 each not including the Revue. We reasoned that we would probably be able to buy a Revue ticket on site if the desire so took us, this certainly seemed to be the case as we saw a few people doing this. We, in the end, did not buy the Revue ticket, the reasons for which are further on in this blog post.

THE GOOD.

We made our way round the Royal Festival Halls many levels, stopping finally at the Studio 54 style party on the main balcony overlooking the Thames. This was definitely a dance extravaganza, with several aging Elvis’, and some much younger (But not necessarily hipper) dancers, tripping the light fantastic. A couple of icy Vodka and Tonics at the bar sorted us out enough to continue in the heat to explore the venue.

There were assorted pop up shops with vintage or retro wares, mainly clothing dotted around on all levels – with zoned music areas for Northern Soul, Rock ‘N’ Roll, Disco and 1940’s style music. The main Dance floor was thoroughly 1940’s with some catchy tunes and able comperes encouraging people to dance and showing them the right moves. We loved the 1970’s decor in the Soul Room and absolutely adored the Rock ‘N’ Roll bar and dance area with its original mural across one wall (That and the fact the Barstaff REALLY know how to make a Singapore Sling that goes down rather TOO easily!).

The craft area looked really interesting too, but we were far to ‘dressed up’ to sit down and join in. After all, we weren’t here to work, not when you could get another Singapore Sling at any rate!

We heard that Johnny Depp might be there (Thanks to Twitter again), but failed to catch sight of him – if he was there, he must have been inside the ‘Black Band’ V.I.P. area.*

*Note to self – Remember to take a range of indelible colouring pens to events for just these occasions next time. Did I say that out loud? Dammit…

THE BAD.

Whilst the music, dance and bars were all great, there wasn’t quite enough of the extra events that a £60 ticket would suggest (Except the British Airways Fashion show – awesome, but more on that in our next post). Again the same problems of lack of free maps, lack of tour guide information points (As noted on several volunteer blogs) meant that you ended up wandering from zone to zone, to see if you were missing anything. I had printed off the guide from the Vintage 2011 website, but at times even this proved a little confusing, but maybe that was the Singapore Slings taking over! We did feel that there needed to be some old fashioned ‘Hawkers’ or ‘Newspaper Boys’ calling out the wonderful events/areas to be found within.

As I mentioned in our first Vintage Post, there were plenty of teething problems, these should be easily rectified if Vintage returns to the Southbank, however, this is our opinion of the event and this is how we felt about it.

OVERALL.

For £19, not too shabby at all. For £60, not nearly good enough.

Sadly, the Slings and the heat took their toll on me (Not so much Ms. Pink, she wanted to join in the 1940’s group dancing!), so we returned home. Weary and happy, but eagerly looking forward to Vintage time next year…

In the meantime, enjoy the slideshow below and look out for our next blog post – Vintage 2011 – The BA Fashion Runway.

Mr. Black signing off.

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Vintage 2011 – The Free Market Economy

Now with added Sass!

Ms. Pink and myself attended Vintage 2011 at the Southbank a couple of times over the weekend. We were both delighted to see old friends and make some new ones, especially on Friday when there seemed to be a lot of ‘networking’ going on.

THE GOOD.

When we first attended, on Friday, we had made it our aim to look around the free ‘Vintage High Street’, as we had tickets for Sunday’s events within the Royal Festival Hall. This was obviously the chance to shop! There were, as usual at these types of events, lots of small things to buy at reasonable prices (Ms. Pink = 2 retro trays, a brooch, a scarf and a pair of dove emblazoned bobby pins – Mr. Black = Nothing as he bought everything for Ms. Pink, well… it was a ‘Vintage’ festival, therefore the lady NEVER pays!) and lots of bigger things to buy at expensive prices.

By expensive, we mean that they were, what Ms. Pink and myself refer to as ‘Food on the Table’ purchases – the choice between having a really nice armchair or not eating for the next week. These sorts of purchases require, especially in these austere times, (How appropriate is that for a Vintage festival? Even the economy has turned back time 70 years!) a lot of forward planning. However, this is always the case, there will always be things that people would like to buy, but can’t. Still, it was nice to look, drool and imagine, if even for only a brief while.

All in all, the stalls were well stocked and fairly busy, with quite a few people in period dress from the 1940’s & 1950’s. Ms. Pink had to pose for a few photographs, even though she wasn’t in anything particularly period that day, but then again, she is Ms. Pink and things like this tend to happen to her (And yes, I KNOW I’m lucky!).

We were particularly struck by the friendly and talkative staff at the BBC Homes & Antiques stand (Thanks to Natasha!) and at the Etsy stand (Thanks to Amity!) . It was lovely to talk about retro & vintage things with fellow enthusiasts in such delightful surroundings. Even though we were unburdened by children, it was nice to see that the little ones had been catered for with an old style funfair.

THE BAD.

Obviously, with events like this, there are always teething problems. Having read about the problems volunteers were having throughout the weekend both on Twitter and the numerous blogs that some of the volunteers wrote, we have to say that Ms. Pink and myself noticed none of these problems on the Vintage High Street, as they seemed mainly confined to the Royal Festival Hall, however, we were disappointed on a few counts in terms of the basic services available, whilst there are a number of ‘high street’ eateries at the base of the Royal Festival Hall, there wasn’t that much to eat at the Vintage High Street. Certainly, not of sufficient breadth, even by most free festivals at Victoria Park standards. Also, there wasn’t enough seating in shade for the customers trying to look at EVERY stall… which was pretty much ALL of them! It’s very tiring being a shopper and there were financial opportunities to be had therein, we didn’t even see one person wandering around selling bottles of water. If they had, they would have made a killing!

Also, there seemed to be a lack of FREE events for visitors to this part (Apart from ‘The Chap Olympiad’ and we ran across that somewhat accidentally!), or even box office representation to encourage people to buy tickets for the Hall and evening events. Though they would have probably been hard pressed to sell them at £60 a pop. Thank the lord for Time Out deals (£19 was much better, but it makes you wonder about why you would sell them for such a high price in the first place – as this almost certainly put a lot of people off), another victory for Twitter!

Also, there was no free map of the event given to carry around, if you are trying to encourage businesses to invest in a stall at your fair, you really need to have those basics covered. In retrospect, it would have perhaps been prudent to have the High Street in Jubilee Gardens, with food and entertainment based solely in the space the High Street was actually located. This would have meant more space for shoppers to spread out, grass for tired feet instead of boiling hot concrete, and the impressive backdrop of the London Eye evoking memories of 1951…

OVERALL.

We found that the Vintage High Street was a success, though Friday wasn’t terribly busy. By the time we had returned on Sunday some of our friends had just about broke even (subtracting costs for the stand) and were waiting to turn a profit. So from a business standpoint, a minor success. We can only hope that Vintage returns to Southbank, teething problems solved, and becomes the unruly, boisterous teenager that it needs to be in order to be a truly great success.

Make sure to look out for our other blog posts about Vintage 2011 over the next few days!

In the meantime, if you missed the experience, here are some pictures of the Vintage High Street to make you green with envy!

Mr. Black Signing off.

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Mischief Makers

Summer Fayre season is almost over (For those of you with kids at primary school age this will mean more to you…) and so the stress of having enough change for the little ones to have their third ice cream or piece of cake will soon be over.

This however, caught mine and Ms. Pink’s eye at William Patten Primary School’s Fayre in N16 (It’s one for the calendar – Good food, good music, excellent children’s book stall, Perroni beer and Pimm’s to boot!), it was the ‘Mischief Makers‘ stall.

As old skool subversives ourselves, we liked the idea of children engaging in positive protest using creative means.

(That and the fact that it’s always hard to replicate children’s artwork once you’re an adult)

Check out the links, enjoy the images and be inspired by the next generation…

Mr. Black signing off.

North London Vintage Market

On Saturday the 2nd of July, Ms. Pink and myself decided to go to Stoke Newingtons newest attraction  – The North London Vintage Market.

Always keen to spot a new place to buy retro and vintage items to both inspire our designs and decorate our home, we duly got there 10 minutes after opening time.

We found the prices both reasonable and the collection of items wide enough to hold even the most particular vintage and retro seekers interest.

We’d highly recommend a visit at their next event (Date to be confirmed…), but beware… the early birds will get the tastiest tidbits, luckily for us that our youngest is an early riser, no danger of us being late! (See, there are advantages to having young children).

Check out some of the pictures below for some of the things we didn’t buy (Well, nearly didn’t buy…).

If you want to be kept updated on the North London Vintage Market then you can either follow them on Twitter here or at their Blog here.

Plenty of suitcases to buy so you can pack all your purchases into them (Btw Ms. Pink bought the flowery saucepans, so forget it they have long since gone!).

 

 

 

 

 

If it wasn’t for the fact that we already have 8 lights already in our living room (Or should that be ‘Entertainment Space’ in the New Interior Designer speak?), we would have bought this lovely cat lamp. Sadly, we had to settle for just the picture, expect lots of cat themed furniture from us soon though…

 

 

 

 

We rather liked these original Vitra side tables/seats. Originally retailing at £400 each, they were going for a snip at £375 for the pair. If only the Bank of Quirk & Rescue could extend to that purchase (Hmmmm, food on the table for children or Vitra corrugated card and MDF design classic? Tough one…), oh well, maybe next time.

 

 

 

 

“Oh, look it’s a pumpkin!” Said our smallest, sadly not little one, but it is a rather beautiful lampshade in a delightful zesty orange – which, incidentally, is coming back in a big way. Well, it is if Ms. Pink and I have anything to do with it…

 

 

 

 

 

Despite the plethora of light fittings, lamps and small, electrified children in our home, I couldn’t help but look at these and think, ‘Hmmm, that would look good on my desk…’. Then I woke up from my brief reverie and realised I haven’t got a desk and maybe that should be the priority before I buy an anglepoise. Mama raised no fool, ha!

 

 

 

 

No vintage or retro fair is complete without the following:

50’s style kitchen storage – Check!

Copper jelly moulds – Check!

Bamboo Gaultier Madonna costume reinforcers – Check!

Hmmm, maybe a bit wide of the mark about that last one, best mark that as optional!

 

 

Mr. Black signing off – TTFN

Our Mission…

Remember that piece of furniture you grew up with?

The one your parents made you polish every Sunday without fail?

The heirloom that had been passed down to them and they always said they would pass it on to you?

And you thanked them gratefully and accepted it and put it in your home…

… even though you didn’t want to.

We are Quirk & Rescue.

We are Ms. Pink and Mr. Black.

We can help.

http://www.quirkandrescue.com