Jane Austen Festival 2023
The Jane Austen Festival, hosted in Bath every year, has been on my bucket list for YEARS… it was always a ‘one day I’ll go’ kinda thing, without really making plans to actually go and do it. I wasn’t sure who’d come with me, what outfit I’d get or how I’d make it happen. It’s always in September, when I usually have a holiday booked so it just never felt like the ‘right time.’
The Preparation
A conversation with my step-mum about it led me to booking it for this year (she said: well, let’s go, we’ll come with you!) So, myself, my hubby, my Dad and step-mum all booked a gorgeous Air BnB in the centre of Bath.
We set about finding costumes… Us ladies bought material, and patterns, and a talented friend made them for us - a lovely experience. The gentlemen hired them from Bath Threatrical (mixed experience with a few sizing issues but overall it went well). We read up about all the activities we could do. Booked tickets (I stayed up until midnight the night they went on sale).
I practiced my hair many, many times and come up with this style for the ball (I had it slightly different during the daytime, see photos below).
Basically, this was about ten months in the making!
The Promenade
The Promenade is essentially like a parade through the streets of Bath.
100’s of people take part - I heard it was over 800 this year! - dressed in regency costume.
This was a real highlight for me, it was wonderful to see so many people in costume; I didn’t see any duplicates! People had gone to a real effort to put their dresses, bonnets, accessories, and so on together.
Walking to the start of the Promenade, several people stopped us and asked if we could take selfies with them, which was really sweet and - call me vain but - quite good fun. During the promenade, members of the public were lining the streets to film and take photos, which was really lovely. It felt like we were really part of something, and a great tribute to Jane (what would she think of this, I couldn’t help but wonder several times throughout the festival!)
The Festival Fayre
The Promenade finished at Bath Assembly Rooms, where a festival fayre had been set up. There was all sorts of Austen-related items to buy, including regency costumes and accessories (I’d already got everything I needed but still fun to browse).
Dance Workshop
Prior to the ball that same evening, we attended a Dance Workshop, which was good fun but quite tricky! If you’ve watched any Austen adaptation, or Bridgerton, you might remember what regency dancing is like - lots of steps and patterns, depending on the music. We left, having had fun, but a little worried that we’d never remember it all for the evening and end up watching the dancing, rather than taking part!
Meryton Assembly Ball
Firstly, on our way to the ball, we passed The Jane Austen Centre and some tourists stopped us to ask if they could pose for photos with us. A small queue formed and we had rather a lot of photos taken! Which was a nice experience - and we also got one of the four of us, which I love - outside the centre, with all those flowers :)
The Ball was my favourite part of the festival. We needn’t have worried about the dancing! I danced every dance but two (we only stopped to eat our picnic supper).
It was so much fun! Liz, of the Jane Austen Dancers, stood at the top of the assembly room, calling out the dances. We walked it through a couple of times before doing it ‘for real’ so everyone got a chance to practice and remember the steps. I felt myself grinning the whole time, it was wonderful.
We also played a game of whist, in the card room - which was good fun. And got chatting to several people; this is an international event with visitors joining from all over the world including Europe, USA, Canada and Australia!
The Jane Austen Centre
The following day, we booked tickets to The Jane Austen Centre. I’ve been a few times before but the centre has changed a little and it was really nice to go around and read about Jane’s life and writing. We wore our costumes again.
We had ‘Afternoon Tea with Mr. Darcy’ there, including Prosecco, which was really good.
Walk about
We also spent a bit of time this day just having a walk around Bath, it’s a beautiful city with a lot of character. The Royal Crescent has to be one of the nicest residential streets, so we posed for yet another photo…
Musical Performance
That evening, we went to see ‘From Page to Stage - Austen musical recital’ with Angela Milton, who sang some fab (and quite amusing, at times) songs from Austen musical adaptations. Really enjoyable.
Alas, that was all we had time for, but suffice to say I had a wonderful time. Very happy tick on my bucket list and if you’re a Jane Austen fan: Go next year!
Read more about the festival here >
PS: I’ve written about Bath before, it’s one of the few cities I actually really like!