festival Archives - Leftover Threads

UK Festival Season 2023

Sep 27, 2023 | Festivals

Summer Summer Summer Time!

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Before you know it’s June and you are back in the fields of the English countryside. Overall we got pretty lucky with the weather this year. Nothing too extreme thank goodness!

We started off the season with Kite Festival again. I can’t say the vibe or the line up was as good as last year. They ended up closing the main stage so all acts got downgraded to smaller stages. But it kind of worked as punters were thin on the ground. Made it a little more intimate.

Next up was the mega festival marathon Glastonbury of course. 10 days on Middle Farm. I love the pre-festival part. All the crew are there and it already feels like a festival. At the end we usually stay another night too just to wind down and make the drive a little easier. Line up wise I only really saw Elton John on the bigger stages. Glastonbury for me is all about the smaller acts. Unheard grooves and bumping into acts you never heard of. Oh and venue-wise Mez Yard was the one for me this year. The Copperdollar crew and their DJ’s smashed it!

With only two days rest at home we headed to Love Supreme Festival This one always feels like a village fate after Glastonbury. Nice and chilled, short drive from home. Yussef Dayez, Grace Jones and Little Simz amongt lots of other talented artists.

We were back at Latitude Festival this year after a years break. Not sure I will be applying to trade there again. It has become so commercial. Barclay Card is one of their main sponsors. They are ramming in about 200 traders, lots of them selling mass produced sweatshop tat. Lame. Plus the line up is never really my bag either, so no loss.

Like we didn’t have enough festivals booked already we went to We Are Love just for fun! Well, I got booked to DJ and lots of our Brighton friends were there so why then heck not?! Intimate little festival in Sussex with great line-up. Highly recommended.

Straight up after there was Wilderness Festival. Weak line up as usual but hey, I guess that means less distraction away from the stall. Beautiful site though.. Those oak trees are magical.

A festival we were really excited to trade at this year was We Out Here Festival. I actually went as a punter last year as the line up is always up my alley. Trading- wise it wasn’t the highlight of the season but music and vibes-wise it was a delight.

Then of course the little Brighton local Brunswick Festival. I get to sleep at home for that one! Shared the stall with Purple Community Fund and it was lovely to have Jane there and to see all the positive interest to their ringpull products.

Lost Village is all the way in Lincolnshire, so that is quite a drive from Brighton. Worth it though? Yes, its a cool little festival. Very young, mainly dance music and less live acts. But still ticking a lot of boxes. Basically there isn’t really anywhere to sit down, rest your legs, listen to some acoustic stuff while having a chai. You got to keep up with them youngsters. Its just dance dance dance! Crazy P, Bonobo, Ibibio Sound Machine and Mr Scruff were there. Always a joy.

Yet again we ended the season with End Of The Road. Or shall I call it middle of the road? Don’t get me wrong, the amount bands you can see in one weekend is more than your brain and feet can handle. But personally I find it all to be mainly “white man’s guitar music” Not enough funk. I dont mind a bit of rock and indie, but not four days on the trot. Kokoroko was there though. I guess they are groovy. EOTR does have a late night “dance” stage. Its hit and miss, but hey, Im there to work aren’t I? So no FOMO here.

And that’s a wrap! Overall that was a good season. I have never done 3 in a row, a little break and then followed by 7 in a row before. Thats intense! But it was fun. Well, they mostly are fun but when the weather is right, and your friends are being the best crew it doesn’t really matter that much if the headliners aren’t what you would have paid to go and see. Im there to work and I love seeing my crew enjoying themselves. Less festivals next year though.. Ten is way to many!

Festivals Are Back In Full Swing 2022

Oct 10, 2022 | Festivals

After the covid years, being back in the fields for a full season felt good. It was obvious that people had really missed the festivals and were beaming with joy. The summer sun was on our side too, we got lucky and didn’t get rained on very much at all. Just to settle the dust!

We started the season with a new kid on the block. Kite Festival. You may assume like the name suggests that it’s a kite festival, confusing yes, but it’s not. It calls itself a festival of music and ideas and its set in the beautiful countryside of Oxfordshire that happens to have a lot of kites. The bird variety that is.. For a new comer we feel it did well and has potential to be something different. Grace Jones was headlining and as per usual she didn’t disappoint.

Next up was Glastonbury. The combination of the forced two year break and delayed 50th celebration made it extra special. Even the weather was well behaved. A truly magical weekend. One of the highlights was having Rajasthan Heritage Brassband flashmob our stall.

Straight after we had our local Love Supreme Festival. Conveniently only a 20 minute drive from home, we had a couple of days to restock and and shower then hit the fields again. With its jazzy groovy vibes its a much more chilled and compact festival compared to Glastonbury. Erykah Badu were amongst the headliners.

After a five-year hiatus, the Secret Garden Party returned to its usual magical spot in Cambridgeshire. It was as raucous and silly as it used to be with a few issues that will hopefully be ironed out for next year. SGP is never about the line-up, its more about discovering smaller acts and walkabouts. We got sited next to Small World Stage, one of our favourites.

First weekend of August is Wilderness As sites goes its our favourite. But this years line-up was weak. And with all festivals back and running, they had barely sold half of their tickets. So from a trading point it was below average. On the plus side there was never a queue to get down to “the valley”.

After a nice couple of weeks back in Brighton and one of our favourite little daytime events Brunswick Festival, we headed all the way to Lincolnshire. A new one for us this year, Lost Village Festival. Set in a beautiful woodland, it’s a dance music festival with a young crowd. Line-up is a great mixtures to explore. Our ring-pull clothing samples we have been working on with Purple Community Fund went down a storm. We are hoping to launch these as collection next spring.

To finish the season is our usual End Of The Road Festival Indie band heavy and family orientated its a chilled one to finish the season. Just how we like it.

Baroque Matador Jackets

Feb 28, 2019 | Jackets & Kimonos

I do love a good collaboration. These jackets were a joint effort with the super talented upcycling label Red Mutha. These guys have been doing it since the 90’s. They used have a shop in Brighton but now they focus on festivals and online sales instead.

The jacket pattern were designed, cut and sewn by the talented Red. She used old curtains and sweatshirts in washed out cream and gold. I can really appreciate how much work went into these. The mutton sleeves, the lining…

Cream Gold Teal Upcycled Mutton Sleeve Statement Tassel Jacket

Cream Gold Teal Upcycled Mutton Sleeve Statement Tassel Jacket Sequin Leopard

I continued the process by adding the embellishments to them. More is more after all! Plus a statement jacket is not complete without a leopard on the back, or maybe an owl or doily in some cases. Here is the outcome. Only 6 jackets in this collection and all of them completely unique. They will be listed in my Etsy shop.

Cream Gold Teal Pink Upcycled Mutton Sleeve Statement Tassel Jacket Gold Embroidery

Cream Gold Teal Pink Upcycled Mutton Sleeve Statement Tassel Jacket Sleeve

Cream Gold Navy Upcycled Mutton Sleeve Statement Tassel Jacket

Cream Gold Navy Upcycled Mutton Sleeve Statement Tassel Jacket Sequin Leopard

Cream Gold Teal Pink Upcycled Mutton Sleeve Statement Tassel Jacket

Cream Gold Teal Upcycled Mutton Sleeve Statement Tassel Jacket with Floral Lining

Cream Gold Navy Upcycled Mutton Sleeve Statement Tassel Jacket with Peter Rabbit

Cream Gold Teal Upcycled Mutton Sleeve Statement Tassel Jacket Sequin Owl

Cream Gold Teal Upcycled Mutton Sleeve Statement Tassel Jacket with Peter Rabbit

Festival Kimonos

Jun 25, 2018 | Jackets & Kimonos

The kimono. The perfect garment to throw over anything night or day to create a bit of va-va-voom. Well, these aren’t strictly kimonos. They are a much simpler cut that creates no waste fabric.

Here is a selection we made in preparation for the festival season. We use scarves, sarongs, saris, you name it. So all complete one of a kind as usual.

Festival Season 2017

Sep 1, 2017 | Festivals

After last years challenging one I was in two mind about doing another season. But as they say time is a great healer and I hadn’t come up with a grand plan to change career, plus I did think “can it be any worse than last year?” Not possible. So yes, we did pack our bags and van and made it to six(!) different festivals. How did that happen?

Well, I’m glad I did decide to do another season as the weather was (mostly) glorious! Especially Glastonbury. It was so dry people were complaining about the dust! (always something). We also finally got offered a pitch up in the Green Fields instead of down in the main market babylon. Yay! Its like a different festival up there…

Latitude, Wilderness and Shambala were sunny too, but sadly Secret Garden Party did get some rain. It was the last one ever too! It was still lovely and it did clear up.

I also went along with Red Mutha to Bestival that now have moved from Isle of Wright to the mainland. I wanted to check out the new site, but we had one dry day and it rained, and rained… Mud bath! Luckily I only had half of rail of stock to pack and de-mud the other end.