Who are we?

Britain Does Vintage are vintage fairs (or we prefer vintage experiences) around the UK!

In May 2011 we (Alex and Sam) met through a shared passion for event planning and decided to combine our love for fashion and all things vintage. The first fair we embarked on was in our hometown – York, and over 2012 this event turned into a real success, beating all competitors footfall figures which gave our traders a great customer base to sell to. This success made us realise how unique our friendly and reliable events were and how the vintage industry really craved this personable touch.

This success was quickly recognised and York Does Vintage was shortlisted for ‘Best Shopping Experience 2012 and 2013′ at the Visit York tourism awards – which was a very proud moment for us!

Since the success of those first fairs in 2011, York Does Vintage soon outgrew its name and became known as Britain Does Vintage. The vintage fairs continue to expand into new locations – and we are always ensuring that they held within the most stunning, historic venues.

Since the early days, we work hard to support local businesses with constant support and promotion for the stall holders and other businesses which we work with. We have backed Independent Retailers Campaigns in 2012 and as of recently helped on ‘Small Business Saturday’ on 7 Dec 2013 in York – a National initiative to put independent businesses at the forefront of our community.

We have recently implemented a large booking system for our lovely traders to book easily onto events so we can concentrate our time on expansion and creating super fairs – this was a lot easier said than done, but we learnt valuable skills of the tech and digital World!

We have just successfully organised our second vintage festival – dubbed ‘the big vintage weekend’ over at Scampston Hall, and we have lots more plans for more festivals in the future as they are so much fun to organise! Here is our recent festival review on 2014’s festival!

Britain Does Vintage continues to expand and we are always looking for new venues and cities to host our wonderful vintage experiences. If you would like Britain Does Vintage to come to your town or city then get in touch with us! We would love to hear from you!

Awards

After our success and business growth in 2012, we were very proud to have won the ‘Outstanding Customer Service’ award at the Visit York Awards in May 2013 – not only this but we were also runners up in ‘Best Shopping Experience’ and ‘Best Marketing Campaign’ on the same evening. The evening was a huge surprise as we were up against big National and International companies – so to be shortlisted was even a huge honour!

Before this award we had already come runners up in the Local Business Accelerators Award in January, behind an amazing York business who went on to win the National award and mentoring from the VERY inspiring Deborah Meaden. Here we won mentoring with some very knowledgable movers and shakers around York and a worthy media advertising campaign to help our business grow!

Come June 2013 we were on a roll and became finalists in ‘The National Vintage Awards‘ for ‘Best Vintage Fair’ and ‘Best Vintage Wedding Fair’ and were also shortlisted for a Welcome To Yorkshire White Rose Award for Customer Service yet again. Unfortunately we missed out on these awards but to just be at the events and to be within the last 3 at the National Vintage Awards was truly fantastic as we were up against some long standing vintage businesses!

November 2013 was another great month for us as we picked up yet another accolade at the York Press Awards –  Tourism and Hospitality Business of the Year! Another award we genuinely were not expecting as again we were up against some very steep competition, but it clearly shows that small businesses really are being recognised in today’s economic growth and it’s amazing to be apart of that!

We have recently been finalists in the Visit York Best Shopping Experience 2014 – loosing out to a National jewellery chain (which was slightly confusing as they aren’t native to York, or really an ‘experience’, but that’s life eh!)!

Here’s to the rest of 2014! We really love our business, who we work with and what we stand for and sincerely hope that comes across in what we do!