July 20th: The Jane Austen Festival in Louisville

Just a small note: I did not take all the pictures that are in this post. This is a collection of pictures that my mom and I took.

Over the weekend, my parents, my two dogs, and I took a little trip. We took a drive down to Louisville to attend the Jane Austen Festival. I had read about it in Miss Laurie's post and it seemed like such a fun thing to do. I had decided that I would attend the festival in the Regency dress I made last year and the bonnet that I made about a month ago (bet you were wondering why I made it).

My mom and I met up with Laurie and her father and we walked around the festival. My mom and I couldn't stay as long as we would have liked because it was pretty warm, but the time we spent there was well spent indeed!

First, we looked at the Navy Encampment

This was the first person I took a picture of at the festival. His character was that of a marine.

Some stuff at the Navy encampment

Ah! a naval officer! He was kind enough to tell us about the Navy during the Regency era.

Here is his profile with his Navy hat on.

He also talked about how to use a sextant. The sextant was used to find out which line of latitude you were near. It came close within about two miles, but really could only be useful at noon.

Update: I received a comment from the lady in the green spencer, Miss Emily Waterman. She helped me to identify the identities of the people in the following four pictures. The updated bits will be italicized. Thank you so much, Miss Emily Waterman!

Here are two Regency ladies and the Naval doctor.

Pictured here are the doctor and his two daughters, Lucy and Molly.

After leaving the Navy encampment, these fine ladies in character walked in. I forgot the names of their characters, but they were being introduced to the Navy officers.
Lady Caroline Linnington, Dowager Baroness Cranston being introduced to the naval officers by Miss Emily Waterman.

The older lady in the red reminds me of Lady Catherine de Bourgh. She had that kind of air that Lady Catherine also had. And I love the younger lady's green spencer!
Lady Caroline Linnington and Miss Emily Waterman

And gotta love the details on the bonnet! 

 Most of the people (both men and women) who attended the festival were in costume (myself included). My mom and I took a lot of pictures of the costumes.

This was also a picture of one of the shops at the festival. There were plenty of tents at the festival that sold anything Regency: teas, bonnets, fans, parasols, even fabric and sewing patterns.

This reminded me of Cranford.

A Regency Gentleman

A Regency couple

At the park, there was a house that George Rogers Clark lived in during the Regency Era. There were a lot of neat things inside of the house.

There was a bobbin lace demonstration that I was interested in. A couple of months ago, I took up bobbin lace and it was great to talk to another person who also did bobbin lace.

 There were plenty of Regency costumes all around the house.

A Regency Redingote

This dress was made out of an Indian Sari. It looked very lovely!

A dress with appropriate Regency accessories.

And who could forget this bonnet?

This lady was on the second floor of the house talking about the costumes. She made most of the costumes that were on display. She hand stitched each dress, but the bonnets were made by a friend of hers.

I also took a picture of the afternoon tea. I didn't attend it, but it looked absolutely lovely!

There were also silent auctions in the same room as the tea. I didn't bid on anything, but a lot of the packages being auctioned were very cool.

And apart of one of those packages was a framed picture of Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy!

And of course I bought souvenirs:

I bought this very nice black fan with painted flowers on it.

And I also bought this parasol.

Before I left, Laurie and I took a picture together.

And my mom took a picture of me running down a hill in my Regency outfit.

I had a very fun time at the Jane Austen Festival. I'm sorry that I missed the Regency Fashion show, but I had a very fun time. I was very happy that I got to meet Miss Laurie after all these years of blogging and E-mailing back and forth. 

(By the way, today is Miss Laurie's birthday: Happy Birthday, Laurie!)

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 God Bless,