Adventures at Secret Garden Party

Our stall, fancy dress, the beautiful lake, the fairground rides and the beautiful countryside.

We had a whale of a time at the Secret Garden Party festival in the beautiful wilds of Cambridgeshire last weekend. It was our first time at this festival but we had heard a lot about it from friends. It didn't disappoint!

We were trading alongside our friends from Second Hand Rose, which is an amazing vintage shop in Worcester that I really can't recommend highly enough - Clare always has such amazing stock at really reasonable prices. For this festival Clare brought along a vast selection of costumes, from ball gowns to tailcoats via Worzel Gummidge and clown outfits, there really was something for everyone. Secret Garden Party is known as THE fancy dress festival, and we saw so many fabulous costumes over the course of the weekend (our faves were the Button Moon family, giant salt and pepper pots and the lucky rainbow folk you can see above).

Second Hand Rose's amazing selection and a happy customer in his new party dress

Also we were joined by Loll, from Wool, Wombling and General... who was holding weaving workshops. She was available all weekend to teach people how to make festival headbands or friendship bracelets in an array of pretty colours. Loll has also kindly let me use a lot of her photographs for this blog post as I kept forgetting to bring my camera out, so thanks Loll! I'd definitely recommend checking out her blog if you are into crafty things and vintage collecting.

It was a busy and very fun weekend, and we met lots of lovely customers as always! This lovely lady was proposed to by her boyfriend with one of our Scrabble rings. She said YES!

My favourite sale of the weekend had to be this Carmen Miranda inspired two piece which I had been saving for festival season. With its ruffles and tropical fruit print it's a real showstopper of an outfit, it was just waiting for the right new owner, and here she is! She looks utterly gorgeous in it so I'm glad it has gone to a great new home!

Clare, our pal from Second Hand Rose, bought this purple cape with feathered collar from us (and the sunglasses!) Again, this item couldn't have gone to a better home! She looks amazing, teaming it with her elephant bum bag and patterned swimsuit.

We really enjoyed the festival, on our down time we enjoyed swimming in the lake, singing karaoke, watching Public Service Broadcasting, ceilidh dancing, exploring the labrynth, watching the fireworks display on the Saturday night, dancing in the Number 13 club (it was an actual garden shed that played Stevie Wonder's Superstition on repeat) indulging in a bit of pampering at the Bathing Under The Sky spa and eating lots and lots of amazing food. It was exhausting and gruelling at times - waking up at 5.30am and finding the party still going strong can be a bit disconcerting when you are working long days, but it was well worth it, and we really hope we can bring Minimum Mouse back for more adventures in the garden next year. Here are some more snaps from the weekend.