Sunday afternoon, while we were still in Louisville, we headed out to Locust Grove to the Jane Austen Festival. We felt like newbies and tourists all mixed together not knowing why people kept asking questions about the family that lived there. Apparently, it wasn’t just some old home that was perserved, but happened to belong to the founder of Kentucky. Kind of important if you’re from there, I guess. We just didn’t know who this Clark guy was.
But, anyways…
The festival was quaint. It was pretty much as the website said. There were shops, a fashion show, afternoon tea, period sewing classes, etc. I missed the book signing with Maragret Sullivan and her talk. The tea and sewing classes were already full, so we just perused the shops, enjoyed the gardens, and watched the fashion show which included a detail explanation of each outfit.
All in all, it was an enjoyable afternoon. It would have been nice to have more of a focus on Austen herself or her works, it was more of a focus on the time Austen lived in. Of course, there were plenty of references and it Locust Grove did have the country feel of Austen’s novels.
That said, I’d go again next year. Sign-up early and get into the tea or other classes they might have. For now, here’s some pictures:
That is awesome! I would love if there was something like that close to where I live! I would jump at the chance to do it!
[...] 14 – Me and Jane Austen are BFF’s. I’ve read all her novels and seen pretty much every film adaptation of her novels. I even went to a Jane Austen Festival last summer. [...]