The Jane Austen Festival 2024: Two Perspectives

What's your favourite time of year? It might be the chance to gorge yourself on chocolate at Easter, or you might love getting spooky in October, or maybe you like to bundle up in the Winter. For us at the Jane Austen blog, it's festival season. The Jane Austen festival takes place over ten packed days in September, with thousands of Jane Austen fans joining us in Bath and the surrounding areas for Regency activities galore. 

Though you're too late to join in with this year's festivities, it's never too early to start planning for next year. In fact, next year might be our best yet, with all the festivities coming together to mark 250 years of Jane Austen in 2025. You can keep up with all the plans and updates by going to the Jane Austen Festival 2025 homepage. 

If you're at all uncertain of whether you should join us next year, today we're here to convince you. Two Jane Austen fans who attended this year's events, Verity and Joanna, have kindly provided us with a brief recap of their experiences at this year's festival. Hopefully, their perspectives provide that extra bit of Persuasion (you see what I did there?) to join us next Autumn. 

Oh to be in Bath!

by Joanna Read of Blue Lady Couture

There is something wonderful about arriving in Bath for the Jane Austen Festival. As you leave the A4 and begin to descend into the city, the streets entice you back in time. The beautiful golden stone of Bath’s famous architecture embraces you on both sides with tall elegant townhouses sweeping away and drawing you in, with those big Georgian windows and cast iron railings and balustrades. I imagine the modern cars and delivery vans replaced by carriages and merchant’s wagons and feel like Catherine Morland must have when she arrives in Bath for the first time. Then a sudden glimpse of a bonnet and top hat through the crowds of shoppers and tourists, but this is no ghostly fantasy of a time long gone. As you continue through the streets you see another and another.

I first attended the Jane Austen Festival back in 2009, awestruck by the fact I could live as an Austen character for a few days, shopping on Milsom Street and dancing in the Assembly Rooms. There is something about the tangibility of that which will never be tiresome, however life undoubtedly gets in the way and after a number of visits, I didn’t return to Bath until 2023, marvelling at how much the festival has grown.

The highlight of the Festival is the opening Saturday with the Grand Promenade and Festival Fair. It is a spectacular homage to our favourite author and her wonderful legacy as 1000s of fans from all over the world gather together in the golden September sunshine bedecked in their Regency splendour. For the first time this year, I wasn’t partaking in the promenade as I was busy setting up my stall for the Fair in the magnificent Assembly Rooms, but before we knew it the Promenaders had descended on us eager to purchase Austen inspired mementoes of their visit, finishing touches for ball gowns later that evening or even to start planning for next year’s costumes.

The Festival Fair is only open for a short window which means those of us ‘working’ can still enjoy the other events. Alongside the guided tours and croquet matches, the Sunday will usually see a picnic held at one of Bath’s beautiful parks. This year Sydney Gardens was the chosen location along with a fascinating display from His Majesty’s 33rd Regiment of Foot – a whole campful of soldiers! Lydia Bennett would be beside herself! You also mustn’t forget to see Jane’s house at 4 Sydney Place just across the road from the park. It’s a private holiday residence, but you can see the commemorative plaque by the front door.

All too soon, it’s time to leave the bubble of Regency Bath. The carriages revert back into cars and the bonnets and top hats slip away into the shadows. The golden Georgian buildings give way to twentieth century suburbs and soon you are back in the real world. Time to pick up one of Jane’s books and escape to Bath for just a few more moments….

Joanna is the owner of Blue Lady Couture where she creates historical costumes for clients all over the world. You can see more of her work at www.blueladycouture.co.uk or follow her socials :

@joblueladycouture on Instagram

Blue Lady Couture on Facebook

Blue Lady Couture on YouTube

Verity's Immersive Festival Experience

As a singer, I’m no stranger to performing in public, but wearing full Regency costume all day in Bath for the Jane Austen Festival was a new and magical experience for me! In fact, it was music that drew me to the Jane Austen Festival this year: in particular, the opportunity to perform with The Square Pianist who crafts concerts in homage to historical figures such as Austen, based on extensive research of their music collections. Whilst originally planning to just visit for the day of our performance, I was fortunate to receive an invitation to stay with some lovely new Regency friends who had a spare room for the weekend – a dream come true! Cue a few weeks of manic sewing, and I found myself on Friday afternoon at Bath train station, suitcase and reticule in hand.  

After a relaxed evening of meeting friends and wandering around Bath on Friday, Saturday morning was tangible with anticipation of the Promenade. Aside from being the largest event of the Festival, I also found it to be a perfect opportunity for inspiration for next year’s costumes. Having graduated from a BA Costume degree this year, I had a wonderful time admiring beautiful pelisses and chatting to strangers about their construction methods and decorative techniques. If I had to describe the Festival in one word, it would have to be ‘welcoming’ as, despite how daunting it seems to be in a crowd of 1000+ people, Regency fans are the friendliest and kindest I’ve ever met. This was also the case for the Netherfield Ball, for which we donned our feathers and danced until our feet hurt.  

On Sunday, I rehearsed for the concert and chatted to the lovely staff at the Assembly Rooms, who answered my particularly burning question of how on earth they opened the large windows at the top of the room (I won’t say the answer, so as not to spoil the magic!). Our concert, called ‘Amusing Aunt Jane’, focused on music that Austen collected during her lifetime, as well as some favourites from TV adaptations. Having sold out in advance, I was filled with a heady combination of excitement and nerves at filling such a large room with my voice – as a classical singer, we very, very rarely use amplification. For those who haven’t visited before, the Tea Room is vast in both depth and height, having been designed to accommodate supper during a ball. However, my fears went away as soon as we began and a wonderful acoustic filled the space. Singing alongside Annemarie Rhys-Jones' 1814 Erard Grecian double action pedal harp and Lisa Timbs’ 1820 Broadwood pianoforte, it truly felt like stepping back in time.  

I had a wonderful time in Bath; it was very sad to say farewell. Roll on 2025 – though not too quickly, as I now have a list of Regency accessories to make for next year that’s about as long as my arm!

Verity Joy is a classical Soprano who is currently studying a Masters in Historical Costume after graduating with a first in BA (Hons) Costume at the Arts University Bournemouth. Specialising in historical recreation and re-enactment, she has worked on projects for museums across England. Recent commissions include an 18th century portrait-based costume reconstruction for Poole Museum, Dorset, and working on Anne Lister’s Music with The Square Pianist for Shibden Hall, Halifax, for which Verity performed in a handmade 1830s dress based on an extant garment from the V&A.  

To keep up to date with Verity’s latest projects, you can find her on Instagram and TikTok at @sew_verityjoy. For commissions and enquiries, please contact sewverityjoy@gmail.com. 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sew_verityjoy/  

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sew_verityjoy  

Website: https://sewverityjoy.wixsite.com/verityjoy  

The Square Pianist Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesquarepianist/   

Thank you so much to both Verity and Joanna for providing these insights into their time at the festival. We hope to see them both again next year, and to welcome more of our readers too!

Ellen White is editor of the Jane Austen Centre blog. She would love to hear from you! Check out our Submission Guidelines and get in touch.