Woodhall Spa 40's Festival Pt2

Last weekend on the Sunday we went to the second day of the Woodhall Spa 1940’s weekend and even though we had spent all of Saturday there too there was still a lot to do and see. On the Saturday we hadn’t found time to make it to the Jubilee Park to look around the stalls and also on the Sunday Lola Lamour would be performing twice outside at The Mall. As we had got to Woodhall Spa a little later than planned, due to wardrobe malfunctions, we decided to have a scone and cup of tea and then head straight to see Lola’s second performance.

We loitered for a while near the performance area and got chatting to one of the organisers, and then Lola came out to see them so I quickly jumped in for a photo opportunity. She also commented on my dress and said how cute I looked. I couldn’t say much in return, I was too nervous!

Having a little walk around before she began singing we bumped into Winston Churchill who gave a brilliant speech before Lola’s performance. The only issue was I was wearing a floaty summer dress since on Saturday it had been floaty summer dress wearing weather and although it was still glorious it was quite windy and for most of the day I was grabbing my skirt.

By the time Lola’s performance began there was quite a crowd and people were dancing in the road because there was so little room. Hopefully though this will mean they can close the road next year due to health and safety, it’s such a shame they weren’t allowed to do that this year as it would have fantastic to have a proper street party. It was brilliant seeing Lola sing and she’s such a performer doing songs by Marlene Dietrich and Carmen Miranda! It made us very excited for Twinwood Festival where she will also be performing with her band The Lamours. There was also Douglas Herd up there with her who is 96 years old and was promoting his book of his experiences in the Second World War.

After Lola’s performance we quickly made out way over to meet both her and Kevin, her husband. We’re huge fans of them as a couple ever since we saw them on the television show Time Warp Wives on Channel 4. That show and the women on it are one of the main things that got me interested in vintage and the 40’s & 50’s. Previously I had been into the 1980’s in a very big way but as I was growing up I wanted something more grown up too, I wanted to be taken seriously yet also retain my style. It was a very big deal for me to meet them and they were just brilliant, everything we had hoped for. They were polite, genuine and very interesting to talk to; not that I could manage to talk much, I was so star struck!

That afternoon we made our way to Jubilee Park to see if there was anything left on the stalls or if we had missed it all. If I’m honest I do most of my vintage shopping on line or in Vintage shops local to Lincoln and very rarely find anything I like or can afford at the events. On our way back to enjoy a cold drink at the pub and watch the final fly past of the Hurricane, Spitfire and Lancaster (which was amazing by the way) we bumped into a couple from our Lindy Hop class. It was really lovely to see them and just we were excited to tell them we had met Lola they were excited to tell us they had met the Jive Aces. We’ll be seeing them tomorrow at our second dance class together!