The Grand Finale - End Of The Road Festival, 2018

  

Sixteen hours after arriving home from the Towersey Festival we were back on the road, on our way to Dorset for our last festival of the season, End Of The Road. After the four hour drive down south we set up our pitch and collapsed into bed just before 9pm. 

Photo booth fun

The following morning, after adding a few finishing touches to our pitch, we had a wander around the site before the public arrived. Just like last year, End of the Road had sold out and we didn't know if we'd get another opportunity to explore.

We were excited to spot an elusive peacock like us, also making the most of having Larmer Tree Gardens almost to himself.

The festival gates were due to open at 5pm so we changed and rolled up the shop front. 

Wearing: 1970s Levi's Panatella jacket (bought at last month's Classic Car Boot Sale), 1960s Aertex tee (found by a friend), skinny jeans and tooled leather belt (charity shop finds)

 Last year we didn't get many visitors until 8pm, after the first band had played their set. This time we were were inundated almost immediately, selling a handful of vintage dresses within minutes. 

After being so miserably cold at Towersey I'd had the foresight to packed my more Autumnal clothing. These super funky devore bellbottoms were a present from the fabulous Suzanne Carillo and got loads of compliments. The 1960s Jeff Banks W1 blouse was 50p from a car boot sale over a decade ago and my Gohil's exotic snakeskin boots were bought by my favourite teacher back in 1966 (the year I was born!) and donated to me a couple of years ago.

The sales continued.....the sheepskin hat (a virtual twin to my favourite festival hat) went to this lovely German lady. Just like last year we were the last shop still open after the main stage closed and the rest of the non-food traders had gone to bed. Our pitch fee had increased significantly since last year and we were a bit worried about covering our costs but when we counted up the takings before bed we were massively relieved to discover that we were already in the black...phew! 

Trade was pretty much relentless from opening at 10am the following morning. I'd decided that if this amazing Tricel maxi hadn't sold by the end of the festival I'd keep it but this lady fell in love so I settled with a photo of its psychedelic beauty instead - she was so thrilled with it that she asked me to bag up what she was wearing and left wearing it (which happens a lot!)

Wearing: 1960s lilac dinner shirt (nicked from the stockroom), vintage Hardy Amies waistcoat, black skinny jeans (charity shop finds), Doc Martens (present from me!)

We were that busy we didn't take a daily outfit post till early evening! 

Wearing a handmade green paisley maxi I bought (with much encouragement from my pals Retro Bambi) from April's Classic Car Boot Sale

Business continued to be brisk, we didn't even manage to eat until after 10pm - not that I'm complaining. After doing a quick add up we realised that we'd had the best festival trading day ever!

Wearing: 1970s dagger collar USA-made shirt (nicked from the stockroom) with black skinnies & vintage waistcoat.

As we rolled the shop front up on Saturday Jon and I decided that today would be much quieter. Surely everyone who wanted to buy our vintage had been in by now? 

I'm wearing a 1960s Hilary Floyd maxi our friends Nikki & Kirk found for me recently at a car boot sale. I love it!

We met Alan and Kim at End of the Road a couple of years ago when Alan bought a coat off us. Kim & I stay in touch via IG. It was so good to see them again.

The two Jens! Jen with the pink hair is a regular visitor to our stall at Indietracks, Jen with the heart shaped sunnies bought this amazing cherry blossom maxi from us at End of the Road last year and still loves it to bits.

Saturday quiet? Would you believe we'd smashed yesterday's total? We decided that the weekend couldn't be all work, work, work and so at 10.15 pm we shut the shop, caught the second half of the Oh Sees set on the Garden Stage and marvelled at the amount of people in the crowd wearing stuff they'd bought from us. We then headed over to the disco in the heart of the forest for a late night dance. 

Despite the late-ish night we were up at 7.30am the following morning - the shop was looking seriously empty and we needed to do some serious reshuffling of the stock so that it still looked inviting. Four rails were disassembled and tucked away under the van and we rolled up the shop front for the final festival trading day of the season.

This 1970s-loving lady fell for this gorgeous Dollyrockers maxi and left wearing it!

Another return customer! This maxi was bought from our pitch last year and remains this lady's favourite frock.

Business continued to tick over but without the intensity of the previous three days. I managed a walk around the site and said hello to some trading mates I hadn't managed to see all weekend.

I even saw a bit of music.

As is now a tradition on End of the Road Sunday I chose a couple of pairs of fabulous earrings from our neighbours, Shilpa Silver (find their website HERE). I also treated myself to an amazing dress from Luna Spirit, a fellow vintage trader.

 I managed to spot another peacock - as well as a polar bear!

I got back to discover Jon inundated with customers...again! A couple of ladies who we met on the first night popped in to say hello and told us that our shop was the emptiest of every pitch they'd visited, Bloody hell, you've nearly sold out!  And they weren't wrong, when we packed up on Sunday night we realised we'd sold over two-thirds of our stock.

Wearing; African waxed cotton shirt, burgundy skinny cords (both charity shopped)

What a weekend! A brilliant end to a fantastic, record-breaking festival season. Roll on Summer 2019!

Wearing: 1970s Lady Lichfield maxi (gift from Helga years ago)

That really was the End of the Road for us! There's just over a week to do some serious vintage stock hunting before we head off to Greece for some much needed rest and recuperation.

Blogging pals - please accept my sincere apologies for the lack of commenting. I promise to catch up with you all in the next few days.