Colchester Free Festival

As a proud Colchesterian, it is so exciting to see the Colchester Free Festival rapidly becoming one of the highlights of the local music calendar; it seems to get bigger and bigger every year, with increasing numbers of bands, musicians, poets, comedians and 'slightly odd' villagers to be seen.

Resident stock photographer (and my husband) Simon volunteered to join the photography team and he got some great shots, I have managed to nab some of them, but these are the ones he chose not to put forward for festival publicity- his own website is under construction and he will share more on there soon.

One of the many vintage stalls to be seen at the festival

The Free Festival has been running annually since 2010 so this is only the third festival, but it seems like it has been part of Colchester forever. As ever, the focus of this blog is vintage fashion and lifestyle, and as with most festivals there was plenty of that to be seen here, but we also love the music and the atmosphere- whether vintage or otherwise. My favourite act on the Lion Walk main stage was headline band Animal Noise, an upcoming band complete with impressive body paint.

My highlight of the whole festival has to be Tankton's Slightly Odd Village Fete (brainchild of the Buffalo Tank), where the attractions included Krazy Kroquet, the Toast Office, The Worst Sideshow in the World, the Art Cannon and of course the Village Fete Olympics.

The whole of Tankton was awash with steampunk fashion and vintage styles, including the Fete de la Musique tent and the Women's Destitute Bedouin Tea Tent- what could be better?

Tankton Village Tea Ladies

Other highlights of the festival included The Willow Green Collective children's area, the Hollytrees stage -with up and coming acts, the Accoustic Stage, the Bandstand with a mix of some of the finest local DJ's (where I inadvertantly got caught in the mosh pit- slightly out of my comfort zone) and the Spoken Word tent.  The spoken word tent is a fantastic addition to the proceedings with a mixture of poetry and comedy, Simon was lucky enough to be there to watch both Fred Slattern (Colchester's Slum Poet) and Rev Dr Ian Prolix- both of whom he reports as being on his 'new heroes' list.

Congratulations and thank you to all of those who planned, volunteered and put their time into such an amazing and thoroughly enjoyable day.  It is my favourite annual local event and long may it continue!  

The next post will be on all the fun of the (not so) Secret Vintage Fair.  

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