Take part

Merchants and makers

Small, giftable, wearable, and finely made. Millinery, masks, fans, and gloves. Ribbon, lace, and haberdashery. Jewellery and hair ornament. Perfumery, soap, and apothecary. Confectionery, chocolate, tea, and coffee. Stationery, calling cards, books, and prints. Playing cards, walking sticks, shawls, corsetry, and stays.

If it could sit on a dressing table or finish an outfit, it belongs here. A table of beautiful small things will outsell a table of big ones.

Hosts and performers

Something that happens in a room, in period dress, that a guest can join within a minute of arriving. Dancing instruction and calling. Card and parlour games. Etiquette, duelling, and fencing demonstrations. Silhouette cutting. Magic lantern. Lawn games. Séance theatre. Tea ritual. Fashion promenade.

Costume matters here more than at our other festivals. A host who’s dressed is doing half the work already.

Musicians

Regency and Victorian. String quartets and chamber ensembles, harp, fortepiano and piano, waltz, quadrille, and country-dance bands, parlour song, salon repertoire, opera and art song, Victorian brass, and music hall.

Acoustic or lightly amplified. It’s a room people move through rather than stand and watch, and a caller who can teach a floor a dance in four minutes is worth their weight in gold.

Volunteers

No costume required, though nobody will stop you. Tell us when you’re free and what you’d like to do.