Mazzy Snape - Creative PR, Journalism & Events

This year was my second year working on spreading the word about the incredible Swingamajig Festival. It’s always easier when it’s something that you enjoy yourself, and that’s why I tend to be fussy with my clients, if it doesn’t come naturally to want to shout from the hilltops about how ace something is, then that makes for a lot of extra work.

Last year I mentioned that I’d heard about Swingamajig, knew that I would like it but couldn’t imagine how amazing it was until I actually attended. This time having been wowed last year my expectations were very high. The site had moved to Rainbow Venues, The Night Owl and surrounding streets in Digbeth.

If you follow my blog then you’ll know that The Night Owl are also an ongoing client of mine, having two of my favourite clients working together could be a dream come true or a monstrous nightmare. The plan was to use The Night Owl for Swing Dance Classes and some big band style live performances with the venue’s regular soul DJs taking over at midnight. I spent quite a lot of time at The Night Owl, having a dance and soaking up the atmosphere, the dance teachers were amazing and the crowd were very enthusiastic! All in all a happy collaboration!

Across the various stages at The Rainbow Venues, I saw some incredible live performances, a few favourites were The Tootsie Rollers (below), The Destroyers (header pic) and Jack Rabbit Slim.

A real highlight for me this year was watching the burlesque performers, last year I’d missed out on this fabulous feature of the festival.

Everyone was sublime, amazing outfits, tongue in cheek attitude, excellent music choices and fabulous dancers. Make it your mission to catch Kitty Bang Bang, Rubyyy Jones, Eliza Delite and all the other fabulous performers soon.

I was the lucky member of the Swingamajig team who didn’t have to work on the day (so please excuse the wobbly phone pics) and I was able to roam free and enjoy the festival. Along the way I had this delicious pie from Pietanic. There were so many amazing food stalls, I was spoilt for choice but it was my pal craftbeerpinup who recommended the bacon cheeseburger pie, yum!

One thing that I love about this festival is how absolutely fabulous everyone looks. A few snaps of some of my friends, just a small sample of the great visual delights on display. Oh and did I mention there was a steam engine?!

It was really satisfying to spend the day soaking up the fantastic atmosphere and see the team’s hard work pay off. Well done Team Swingamajig & bring on 2017!