Host your own Jane Austen Festival - at home! - Jane Austen articles and blog

Here at the Jane Austen blog, the Jane Austen Festival is the unmissable event of the season. We hope that you all have your tickets, but if you don't, you can see which events are still available here. We can't wait to welcome you to Bath next month!

However, we know that attending isn't possible for some Jane Austen fans to get to us in Bath this September. As much as we could bring all of you to Bath from every corner of the globe, we know that it's just not possible. So, we had an idea - what if you could celebrate in your own way, at home? In this post, we've detailed some ideas on how you can celebrate the Jane Austen Festival at home, by yourself or with friends!

Prepare your snacks

Whether you are entertaining or not, you'll need fuel to get you through your festival day. Of course, you could stock up on all your favourite 21st-century snacks to accompany your activities, but why not zhuzh your day up with some authentic Regency recipes? We've got plenty of them in the Regency DIYs section of our blog for you to experiment with. Why not prepare a platter of pasties, or make it seasonal with this Autumn vegetable soup? If you're looking for something to nibble on, we have a modern update on Martha Washington's sugar cookie recipe, or you could try to make rout-cakes to impress Augusta Elton. You'll need to stay hydrated, too. If you're of drinking age, you could try making negus, a kind of retro sangria, or if you prefer a non-alcoholic tipple, you could follow this recipe for lemonade from 1827.

Trim your own bonnet

The jewel in the crown of the Jane Austen Festival is the Grand Regency Costumed Promenade.The festival simply wouldn't be what it is without hundreds of fans dressed up in full Regency garb promenading through the streets of Bath. Now, if you want to get fully dressed up to sit in your own home, more power to you! However, if that seems like a lot of effort to you, you might just want to try trimming your own bonnet. You can get plain woven bonnets online and decorate them with flowers, ribbons and all kinds of other accoutrements. This would be a great activity to try out with friends. Not sure where to start? We've got a how-to article here: Trim your own bonnet.

Tune into one of our live talks online

Even if you can't join us in person, that doesn't mean you have to miss out on everything going on in Bath. This year, we have a whole flight of online talks and lectures you can tune into from wherever you are. There are so many different subjects to pick from, from Diversity in Jane Austen's Bath, to the carriages of Jane Austen's era.

These talks are only available to watch online live so make sure you check the dates and times so you don't miss out.

Host a letter-writing afternoon

In the age of instant messaging convenience, it is easy to communicate with friends and family across the world in the blink of an eye. However, are we really saying exactly what we want to say to the people we love, with all the depth that we want to say it. Handwriting a letter, I believe, is a mindful, thoughtful way of communicating with the people that we love. And what's more exciting than receiving post that isn't a bill? We know that Jane Austen was a prolific letter writer, and letter writing has an important place in her novels, from the letter Darcy writes to Elizabeth unfurling Wickham's deceptions, to Captain Wentworth's swoon-worthy letter to Anne Elliot.

You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. - Persuasion

Right? You don't have to have anywhere near Wentworth's way with words to write a compelling letter. Write down the names of two or three friends you haven't been in touch with in a while, and pen a lovely handwritten letter to them. They'll be so delighted to receive it!

We've got plenty of kit in our gift shop to get you started, including pen and paper.

Throw a movie night

Of course, once you're full of negus and sugar cookies, and bone-weary from bonnet decorating and letter scribbling, you deserve to sit back and relax with your favourite Jane Austen movies. Which one? The choice is yours. I personally would be snuggling up with Autumn de Wilde's 2020 Emma starring Anya Taylor Joy and Johnny Flynn. Which adaptation will you be picking?

Are you going to host your own Jane Austen Festival at home, or will you be joining us in Bath to celebrate 250 years of Jane Austen? Let us know in the comments.

Ellen White is editor of the Jane Austen blog. If you would like to contribute to the blog, she would love to hear from you. Follow this link for more details.

Host your own Jane Austen Festival - at home!