Stamford Georgian Festival

In 2013, the Lincolnshire town of Stamford hosted its first Georgian Festival.  We went along on the Sunday, dressed for the occasion, but there wasn’t much going on, apart from a few stalls on The Meadows, a small Napoleonic encampment, and a Georgian cricket match…it would seem that we should have gone on Saturday, as the redcoats marched through town, and there were more events.  Even so, we had a lovely day.

Quirky architecture

Two years later, and the Stamford Georgian Festival had grown, with plenty of events on both days, horse-drawn carriage rides, talks, music, theatre, a Napoleonic encampment, and a lot more stalls. 

We attended a very interesting and entertaining talk by John White, Waterloo – A Pedlar’s Tale, wandered around town, meeting other people dressed for the occasion, and had a thoroughly enjoyable day.

 

2017 was even bigger and better than the previous two, and started on Thursday…four days packed with music, talks, tours, dancing, food and drink, carriage rides, theatre, and much much more.

We attended on the Saturday…myself, Robert, and friend, Amanda, arrived early in order to find somewhere to park, then had a leisurely perambulation around town before heading off for and afternoon of dancing (where I ended up with some nasty blisters from my new shoes!)  Apart from the blisters, it was another brilliant festival.

In 2019, Robert and I headed for Stamford once again.  There had been some controversy, as apparently there was a new team organising the festival who appeared to want to include steampunk in the programme of events, much to many people’s horror.  We were not too happy with this idea, either, even though we are steampunks.  It’s fine to include Georgian in with steampunk, due to the time-travel side of things, and it’s known as Georgianpunk…all good fun.

But, this is a Georgian festival, celebrating all things Georgian, which many people take seriously, especially the reenactors who spend a lot of time researching, and being as historically accurate as they possibly can.  And that is what makes this so special, and draws the crowds, in costume, or not. 

Although quite a few people boycotted the event, we were happy to see that there was only one steampunk in town, a chap who was drawing caricatures, which is something that was very popular in the 18th century.

This year we joined the Promenade around Stamford, and hoped that the rain would hold off, but as we were nearing the Meadows a few spots began to fall that gradually got heavier.  Thankfully it didn’t amount to much and we were able to chat to friends, including Zack, before we decided to head off home. 

 

Now we just have to wait and see what this year brings, even if it is only outdoor events.  Fingers crossed.

http://www.stamfordgeorgianfestival.co.uk