On the cards today was a visit to The Festival of Thrift held in Darlington along with my friend Lesley.  I had no expectations of what to expect as this was the first one to be held.  It was free and Wayne Hemmingway was at the helm so it was worth a look. 

We were very lucky as the weather was perfect for a day out. I had been to Lingfield Point in my previous sales career attending a networking event.  It was explained that it had been the old Paton wool factory and the long term view was it to become an eco village. To build eco houses, people being able to walk to work, and having a self sufficiency food programme including building allotments and bee hives.  At the time I was very impressed.

On arrival there were volunteers to meet you with programmes of what was happening, again free. The queue for the workshops were quite long so we headed straight for the stalls which were a mish mash of craft, food, vintage, and not for profit organisations but a lot of emphasis was on upcycling and make do and mend.  There were some fabulous creations on the stalls and lovely stallholders willing to chat, except for one.  I was told politely ‘no taking pictures of my stall with mobiles’ when I was actually texting.  Little did I know that Lesley had already taken a picture of it and carried on so I must have got the rollicking! She did chuckle.

The best find of the day was a line of VW campervans which were turned into dining rooms for the day.  Everyone had a different theme such as African, Indian etc. We plumped for the Indian, so we booked the camper, and set off to get a real ale to go with it. We clambered in with squeals of excitement when we saw all the flowers, knitted bunting , Indian cloths, incense was smoking and it was perfect.  The chef came and introduced himself and we were then waited on for our two course lunch.  Mung bean soup was followed by three veggie curries, rice, chipati, and 3 different side dishes. The meal was delicious and it was one of those memories we will treasure.

Some of the people milling round were dressed in vintage clothing and really looked the part and the street theatre was very good too.  One man was dressed in a cress suit which was pretty amazing, a rag and bone man, some men riding round on a made steam roller with very little clothes on, the tea ladies were really funny too.  One of them whispered in my ear that Mrs Morris down the road took her tea wearing no panties!

I am a sucker for kitch and fell in love with an old caravan revamped and made into a mobile shop.

I also recognised one of the designers from the TV programme Fill your house for free making a caravan from pallets.  Then I saw the girl who went round picking up everything in the van from the same programme. I asked if it was them from the Kirsty programme and was told 'it was our programme and Kirsty just fronted it' Oh well that told me then! 

The atmosphere was vibrant and quirky and we came away feeling on top of the world. My head is buzzing with all sorts of ideas although I only bought a bad full of clothes from the jumble sale and a piece of Liberty material and they only cost £8.50 for the two.  I hope that it will be on again next year as I would love a return trip.