In early summer this year, we were lucky enough to bring some of our bags to the beautiful village of Bakewell for the first British version of L'Eroica, an annual Italian vintage racing cycle festival that celebrates vintage steel framed bikes and long distance mixed road and gravel riding with the support of the surrounding villages, providing food, drinks and lots to buy and explore! Although the English countryside is very different from its usual setting of Tuscany, the L'Eroica Britannia festival was brilliant; we had great weather the whole weekend (really), lots to do, and most importantly, there were thousands of beautiful bicycles, all made before 1987.  There were also some lovely leather bags on display too!

With such an important event coming to the UK Vida Vida decided we would attend the festival.  We set up our stall jointly with vintage cycle specialists Retrospective Cycles, a London based importer of used Italian racing bikes, and we spent three days chatting, exploring and selling quite a few bags and plenty of bicycles too!  When we weren't on the stall, there was so much to do; from the 'cycle your own smoothie' stall to 'make your own face wash', we were definitely never bored. As well as all that, we had some amazing food, and there were endless vintage shops and quirky bike accessories to discover. 

It was particularly interesting to meet the people that had traveled to the UK especially for the festival, and we managed to not only interest the locals who had come for the day with our bags but also the cycle enthusiasts who became very interested when we had a brainwave on day two and realised our leather satchels also worked perfectly as cycle bags, looking great with the vintage bike frames at the same time.  An example of this is in the lovely photograph below and, if you are interested in this particular version then you can see the Vida Vida Mini Leather Satchel which is just £35 at the moment.

 I think our highlights of the weekend were watching the riders finish the 100 mile cycle on the last day, the delicious food stalls and the original 70's Raleigh Chopper we offered to sell for a cycling festival-goer. Although the vintage bikes and bags we had with us received a lot of attention, nothing could compare to the chopper – not a person walked past without at least pointing and smiling, the occasional photo and more than once a hopeful request to give it a ride - we did of course oblige.

We had an amazing time at L'Eroica Britannia and I'm really hoping we get invited back next year!  If you are anywhere near the event, it is highly recommended.