Psssttt….don’t tell anyone but we’ll be at the Secret Garden Party this year. Yes, rehearsals have been underway and planning is a go-go for an exciting array of classes and performances at one of the UK’s best small festivals. Among the acts performing are Caravan Palace and we’ve been getting very exciting about the prospect of swinging out to them in a field in Cambridge shire. Swinging out to electro-swing?! I hear you cry. Yes! That’s right. And just in case you thought it couldn’t be done, take a look at this amazing performance form the Ninjammerz at with the very same Caravan Palace at Festival de Jazz de Montréal.
Next challenge…swinging out in wellies. Oh dear… Share
BUST, Summer Craftacular – Shop. Craft. Dance! Sat July 10 | 12pm – 7pm
An indie shopping mall in York Hall! With DJs, drinks, DIY and an alternative food court of sweet and savoury treats… and dancing with Swing Patrol.
SHOP at over 60 stalls of the hippest in handmade.
CRAFT a fascinator headpiece with The Make Lounge; screen-print a tote bag with Mr Wingate; colour-in jewellery with Tatty Devine.
DANCE to DJs The A-Maisonettes, The Vinyl Vendettas, She Runs With Wolves (Ladyfest Ten); learn to Lindy Hop and Jitterbug with a special beginner’s class by Swing Patrol from 5.30pm to 7pm.
Goodie bags for the first 100 through the door, raffle and more. Admission: £2. *Sign up for the fascinator-making workshops (1pm-2.30pm and 4pm-5.30pm) on the day, places limited.
Two weeks later and we are still day dreaming about the great times we had at the London Swing Festival! And it’s worth noting that we are all set to go again from May 26 to 30 2011! Get it down in the diary now!
In the meantime take a look at these stunning photos (courtesy of Kim Sheard Photography) of the Saturday night baland marvel at some of the fastest feet in London…
Ok, not exactly Swing related but a bit of a must for all you fans of vintage fashion! The Grace Kelly retrospective starts this weekend at the V&A. The exhibition shows the wardrobe of Grace Kelly, one of the most popular actresses of the 1950s, featuring dresses from many her films. The V&A will be hosting awhole stack of events to compliemnt the exhibition including films screenings, a film and fashion study day, a short course on 1950s haute couture and practical worshops making Grace Kelly-inspired hats and scarfs….now doesn’t that sound delicious? You can find out about the exhibition and all it’s events at the V&A website. If you love cinema the BFI Southbank is also showing a season of Grace Kelly films 1-30 June. See www.bfi.org.uk for details
With the London Swing Festival coming up we really couldn’t resist the opportunity to give you a sneaky peek at some of your teachers. It’s probably fair to say that Dax Hock needs no introduction. Here he is with his lovely dance partner Sarah Breck at the Lone Star Championships (LSC) 2010.
This is their spotlight in the All-Star Invitational Jack & Jill Finals ( If you don’t know what that means stay tuned for our Swing Festival jargon buster!). All the competitors got 2 songs to spotlight to, the first of which was a ‘Lindy Hop song’ and the second a choice of either “Neo-Swing ” (yuck) or “Super Club Jam.” Dax and Sarah chose the latter and I have to say the results are PRETTY COOL. I cannot wait to see what they are going to teach in May. Watch and love.
Exciting events afoot at the Barbican this summer. They are celebrating 80 years of great jazz big band music with a series of special concerts. The season will feature the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with the one and only Wynton Marsalis (JLCO) charting the story of the American jazz orchestra.
Residents of East London will be especially spoiled with performances at the newly refurbished Stoke Newington Town Hall, the Vortex in Dalston, and the Hackney Empire.
So imagine that someone took an array of old swing styled tracks and reworked them in a sort of hip hop style, slung in a DJ, A man wielding clarinetist and a very hypnotic female vocalist and brought them all to a bar just off Brick Lane. Sound like fun? Yea, we thought so too. Which is why we’ll be checking out Future Swing Stories at the Redchurch bar after class on Thursdays.
WATTS-ON? Jivers and Jitteries! 18th Of March marks the virgin eve celebration of a boisterous musical period in a” COOL CAT” contempory manner. FUTURE SWING STORIES , Is a night of revised vintage vibes and daredeviling dancing. Kick off your shoes and bust your conk off.
Expect: Swing suit clad men, Jive and Jitterbug dancers galore, man weilding clarinet, specially created early era films and the Londons best swing dj’s, mixing, scratching and mending, blending some of the best knees up audio this side of chicago.
Best of all, they dig Kormac. My new favourite swing mash up act. Don’t believe us? Well don’t take our word for it…have a listen.
Love your vintage? Well you could do a lot worse than getting yourself down to the Clerkenwell Vintage Fashion Fair this Sunday. With clothes from the 1800s-1980s and over 40 NEW dealers in fine vintage apparel from all over the UK & Europe it promises to be quite the occasion. I picked up some great stuff on my last venture, not to mention some rather smashing tea and cake
Do get in early though, with over 800 people attending the last one it’s best to get in early for the real fine pickings before the vintage style seekers arrive en masse.
Sunday 14th March 11:00-4:30pm £4 The Urdang, The Old Finsbury Town Hall, Rosebery Avenue, London, EC1
Pst….they were giving away 100 FREE tickets on their website. Hurry on over and see if you can snaffle one.
Keep looking for the heart…
So many people turned out for our French themed Swing Pit on Sunday night. The dancefloor was packed with stripey t-shirt, berets and fantastic dancing. A big thank you to Isabelle and Noemie for organising one of the coolest Swing Pits the Vibe bar has seen. If you didn’t make it down then take a look at these great photos by Simone Edwards and see what you missed….
You can see more photos from Ze Pit Francaise and keep up to date with Swing Patrol events by joining our facebook group. See you on a dance floor soon…
Haworth 1940s Weekend is an annual event in Haworth. Where’s Haworth I hear you ask? It’s a small town in West Yorkshire, where the streets are cobbled and everything is is sepia….well, almost. I can vouch for it’s amazing vintage shops and delectable scones. That part of England is sometimes reffered to as Bronte country because its where you’ll find Haworth parsonage, home of the Brontes. SO, over with the history lesson and on the the blog post…
Each year in springtime, Haworth host a 1940’s weekend. The whole town is decked out to recreate the 1940s for a weekend with an RAF vintage plane flypast, morale boosting visits from “Sir Winston Churchill” and swing dancing in the streets during the day and in local dance halls and pubs in the evening. If you liked the atmosphere at the Blitz Party, or if you’re just partials to men in uniform then you’ll probably love this. Visit www.haworth1940s.co.uk to find out more.
So imagine that someone took an array of old swing styled tracks and reworked them in a sort of hip hop style, slung in a DJ, A man wielding clarinetist and a very hypnotic female vocalist and brought them all to a bar just off Brick Lane. Sound like fun? Yea, we thought so too. Which is why we’ll be checking out Future Swing Stories at the 
