Festival-Going

Sunfest is on in London this weekend.  It’s another great excuse to stroll beautiful Victoria Park, hear some exotic live music and smell the smells of deep-fried delights that I wouldn’t dare let touch my lips.

My friend Corinne and I did the vendor tour on Friday and marvelled at the selection and reasonable prices.  I got a silver-plated cuff and she bought a long necklace made of glass beads, for $5 each.  It was an inexpensive stroll with loads of unique things to see.  Don’t you hate it when every third vendor is selling something similar?  We didn’t find that to be the case.  There were wooden storage trunks, organic, pre-shrunk cotton fashions, the required wacky T-shirts and belt buckles with silly sayings, garden art and paintings.  That’s just a partial list.

We saw a lot of things that took us back to when we first became pals, back in high school.  So-called Jesus sandals were going for $2.99 a pair.  These days, any leather sandal-like shoe is marketed as a “Jesus sandal” but we had the real thing and that’s what was for sale at the festival.  They’re impossibly hard, simple leather sandals that you are supposed to wear in the bathtub to let them soften and mold to your feet!  We all did it.  And now they’re back.

All-leather Jesus sandals

Among the other items were loose-fitting lace cardigans that were all the rage in the 80’s.  We wore them over tank tops and apparently that’s happening again.

young model wearing peach coloured lace pullover over white tank top

I always stuck to white or black, though.  Never salmon.

So many young women are making leggings part of their all-season uniform, even in the hot festival sun. When I lived in Toronto in the late 1980’s I lived in leggings.  Now I can’t find a pair that’s the kind of quality I want although I did buy a pair of jeggings the other day.  They’re stretch denim leggings and they’re ridiculed as often as they are praised but I like them and so there.

I have dresses I’ve purchased at previous summer festivals that I now only wear when I go back to summer festivals!  Sometimes you can be fooled into thinking something has more of a universal purpose than it actually does.   But it’s always worth a stroll when London puts on a fest of any kind.  It’s just another thing I love about this city.