Vintage Festival

Joel Bird is a vintage dancer, he dresses in vintage clothing and he runs his own vintage festival ‘The Margate Swing Festival’. His love of jazz lead him on a path towards 1930-50’s culture, he dances a mixture of vintage styles often referred to as swing dancing, they include Lindy Hop, Charleston, Blues, Shag and Balboa. He has written articles and featured in publications such as ‘The Guardian’ talking about vintage style and culture. His festival is a celebration of all things vintage, with live jazz music, a wild swim, vintage style and of course dancing. See: www.MargateSwingFestival.com
For Joel, this ‘scene’ is not about imitation, fancy dress or covering old style music, it is intertwined in his whole philosophy on life, understanding all that was good about the old ways and taking it into the future, in the form of sustainable living, self-expression and the preservation of crafts.