Special Edition: Ballarat Beat

A chance click a few weeks ago when looking at my favourite vintage and pin-up Facebook pages alerted me to the fact that the Ballarat Beat Rockabilly Festival was coming up. I had it in my head that Ballarat Beat was a little closer to Easter. Given that Easter moves every year I don’t know why I had that thought in my head. Never the less, Ballarat Beat was this weekend and we cleared our schedules to go! We stayed with my oldest friend and her partner: Rach and I have been friends for 26 years, we went to kinder and primary school together, and we also worked together in our final year of high school. Spending the weekend with Rach and Andrew was wonderful, all four of us are so busy the last time we saw each other was August 2014. Rach works for Ballarat Regional Tourism, and Ballarat Beat is one of her babies. 

Set amidst the amazing heritage buildings of Lydiard Street in the Ballarat CBD, the festival kicked off with a launch party at The George Tiki Bar on Friday night. We arrived to Rach and Andrew’s just before noon Saturday afternoon. We lunched, then I got changed into something a little more sun safe. I wasn’t going to do my hair and make up for the street festival, but then I looked at myself and thought I looked awfully sick with my ‘do rag on and no war paint so that was quickly rectified. Unfortunately I was feeling rather camera shy all weekend and the sun was so bright it was difficult to see my camera screen when capturing moments.

There were pin-ups, rockabillies, rockabellas, and mid-century lovers everywhere you turned. The stalls were fabulous, and the cars, my word the classic cars. Despite the amazing architecture, the beautiful fashions and men, women and children wandering the streets, it was the cars I couldn’t stop snapping. I’ve always loved classic cars, it was something we would do as a family, visit classic car shows. This weekend was no exception.

This gorgeous pink rod was on display Sunday and I could not get enough of it. The paint job was incredible, and the chrome finishes, my word they were fabulous.These pictures simply do not do it justice. The running boards were so low to the ground, I’d hate to think what the chassis would look like if this was driven on a gravel surface!

I was feeling rather camera shy over the weekend, so there aren’t too many snaps of me, and the ones that do exist aren’t the greatest as they’re from the end of the night and I’m tired with frizzy hair. I even feel like I was a long lost relative of the Tiki Watermelon from The George Tiki Bar!

Rach asked me to style her hair for Saturday evening, and again Sunday morning and I have to say I’m pretty pleased with the end result! I’d never styled anyone’s hair other than my own, you see. She even slept in it on Saturday night, and Sunday morning I touched it up and styled it a little differently at the back. Sunday morning was interesting though when she received a phone call from the Herald Sun telling her a photographer was on their way – I had less than 10 minutes to get her hair fixed and ready! What do you think?

And here is the gorgeous Miss Rachael working hard while Ivy Fox and Ruby Rabbit work their magic for the Herald Sun Sunday morning in Lydiard Street. Photo by instagrammer @myfanwymarshall. The Mister and I were just out of frame here, thankfully!

And now, the all important purchases of the weekend. It all began Friday night actually with a new outfit from K-mart before heading up on Saturday: A pair of cropped jeans, a strapless top in stripes, and 6 pairs of earrings for the bargain price of $16. I wore the crop jeans and the top with my Hell Bunny Rachel bolero, a pair of coral peep toe flats, a plaited belt, a coral hair flower, and my large faux pearl screw back earrings. I wore the cream rose earrings Sunday with my Lindy Bop blue Audrey dress.

I promise you my camera is focused, this little guy is actually a bit on the blurry side already, which I think adds to his charm. All three brooches are from Miz Smitten Kitten who came all the way from Wollongong!

My other purchase of the weekend is the beautiful Nineteen50 Lady Peggy from Laurina Jean “Vintage Inspired”. I am in love with everything about this dress, especially that there was a festival sale on Laurina Jean’s dresses. I haven’t pressed my dress yet, so apologies for the obvious creases in the fabric.

That about wraps up this special edition post. We were exhausted from the heat and the Saturday activities so we didn’t do much on Sunday, instead headed home early. I did very nearly run into Miss Ivy Anchor on Sunday as she stepped out of the Lydiard Wine Bar for the Best Dressed competition but I wasn’t certain it was her. We’ve never met personally you see, only admired each other from afar at the Geelong Revival last year, and started our friendship through Instagram. That’s the thing about the rockabilly/pin-up community, everyone is so lovely and you’re sure to make friends all over the place (turns out Miss Ivy Anchor lives only 10 minutes from my parents!). So if you’re on Instagram, love the vintage/rockabilly/pin-up scene, be sure to head over and follow Miss Ivy Anchor, she’s a doll!

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