The Summertime Hop – One Night With You (Just Ain't Enough)
Here I sit, bleary eyed. It's Monday evening and I'm still recovering from the Made In The Shade rock'n'roll weekend. Praise Presley for Lucozade Orange. The Made In The Shade gals hosted our first annual Summertime Hop event on Saturday where we took over two beautiful spaces in the Glasgow University Union, turning them temporarily into little nooks of handmade loveliness.
I was so excited (and nervous) on event day that I got out of bed at 4.30am. I spent the morning rattling around my flat, gathering random bits and bobs that I thought we might need. Cleaning wipes? Check. Febreze? Check. Paper plates? Check. Shakin' Pyramids CD? Check. I sat perched on the sofa drinking copious amounts of tea and watching the minutes tick by on BBC News 24. Is it time to put my frock on yet? What about now? Frock time? Rattle, rattle, rattle. My heart was pounding so hard I thought I might need to call an ambulance. Beardy, the fella, told me I ought to stop being ridiculous.
Following the completion of beauty rituals, and having experienced those awful panicky moments when I wonder if we've hired tables or if we've even remembered to recruit vendors, we called a cab and set off. I traveled west from D-Town smothered under Clare's enormous bag of cushions. The taxi driver definitely thought we were bonkers - bless 'im. We left a generous tip by way of apology for the hysteria (and the carriage of heavy goods).
As it turned out, the pre-event organisation was much less fraught than we had anticipated. When in the middle of a venue set-up, it's usually best not to approach a Made In The Shade gal for fear that she may flail and screech unladylike sweary words at you. However, on Saturday morning we were all fairly breezy – happily hanging bunting from every available surface and arranging Beardy's scrumptious home baking onto pretty plates and doilies.
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Nora's Bake Sale - oh my |
Doors opened to visitors at 12 noon. We appreciated the devotion of the little huddle of people who waited patiently on the stairs as we added the final touches to the space. They jumped to attention as soon as we hit 'go' on this season's play list, eager to nab themselves a little bit of handmade magic or vintage treasure. In the Craft Lounge, the uni's Stitch 'n' Bitch chicks set up their own little crafty tea party complete with gorgeous vintage crockery and quirky teapots. Miss Moovelous (aka my good friend Davina) set to work teaching some crochet stitches while visitors enjoyed tasty treats from Nora's 50p Bake Sale. Beardy's lemon and raspberry cakes surely were a hit. Every last cupcake was munched and Suzanne's marshmallow top hats were a roaring success too!
Having spent a year's worth of pocket money at the Made In The Shade Marquee last month, I was forced to curb my spending this time around. Never was the urge to splurge more great. My 'I want' list has extended somewhat to include the entire giftware collection by Wooden Tree (Kirsty Anderson), every last one of Bindy Boo's (Eva Gustavsson) handmade books and journals, a custom made playsuit by fashion designer Rachael Albert, wooden butterfly hairslides by Hungry Designs (Amanda Whitelaw) and an illustration (any illustration – they're all beautiful) by Made By Mother (Mhairi McMullen).
We were beyond excited by our musical line-up for The Hop. This isn't the first time we've incorporated live music into a Made In The Shade event. Everyone's favourite alt choir, The Parsonage, performed at last year's Festive Shopping Weekender. However, this was the first time we added a full blown gig scenario to the indie shopping and public crafting mix. We were thrilled to have booked blues guitar madman, Dave Arcari and Scotland's favourite rockabilly trio, The Tennessee Hotshots to play for us.
The entire evening was perfectly offset by a rock'n'roll soundtrack handpicked by Aaron and Sailor Tony of All Tore Up. Somehow, despite being on my feet for 16 hours and having the distinct feeling that the left side of my body might dislocate itself from the right side (that's before the party even started!) I found a new lease of life thanks to Ibuprofen capsules, a rum injection and a gifted cupcake from Hungry Designs.
We were thrilled that some of our vendors opted to stick around for the night time portion of the event and it was lovely to see so many day time visitors make good use of their all day pass and return for more Made In The Shade fun after dinnertime. Relieved that the majority of the hard work was over, the Gals and I let loose a little – enjoying a hip swing on the dancefloor alongside the All Tore Up rockabilly goddesses. The party just didn't go on long enough. Although I was supposed to be folding up tablecloths and collecting litter, I couldn't resist one last stomp along to 'One Night With You' as the All Tore Up record hop came to an end.
We've received some fabulous positive feedback about the event from vendors and visitors. Thank you! As much as we appreciate the kind words, we can't help but feel that we didn't quite deliver on this bonanza – certainly not in the way we hoped to. Despite the amount of time, money and energy we invested in the event, the number of guests was undoubtedly lower than we expected and I think next year we need to look at ways to combine and integrate the indie shopping element of Made In The Shade with the music and socialising more effectively.
In January 2009, inspired by our clever counterparts in London Town, we set out to host Glasgow's first indie shopping festival. I'm not sure The Hop '09 lived up to that particular tagline but you can bet your boots that we'll be taking away some valuable lessons from this season's edition of Made In The Shade and we'll work hard to blow your bobby sox off next year with a stonker of a Summertime Hop!