What were you doing last weekend? Because if you weren’t at London Southbank, you were really missing out!
The Southbank played host to one of the most glamorous weekends of 2014 so far.
Just along the river from the Vogue magazine Festival, the Caravan Club’s was hosting a fabulous Glamour Vanning event. And just like Vogue, the caravan event attracted its own list of celebrities.
And in a perfect start for such a glamorous event, the sun was beaming, free massages were on offer and, musical entertainment was provided by Talia Janson – what more could you ask for?
The Glamour Vanning event took place at The Queen’s Stone Riverside Walkway next to the Oxo Tower Wharf on Saturday 29 March and Sunday 30 March.
The Caravan Club teamed up with Fabyouless, the UK’s largest beauty, hair and fitness card, to give people a taste of what would be on offer if they signed up.
Free beauty treatments were provided by Roxy Arnold on Saturday and Cherelle Rose on Sunday inside one of the caravans one site.
The biggest attractions to the site were the two modern retro Airstream T@B caravans, the larger L400 TD3 and smaller 320 off-road T@B, proudly marking their territory on the Southbank’s grounds.
Nikki Nichol, Head of PR at The Caravan Club, told us of the need to challenge the stereotypes associated with caravanning.
And indeed the small retro T@B caravans were perfect to promote versatility and show the largely female crowd, that caravanning isn’t about leaving your hair straighteners at home and enduring “bad hair” days, every day.
These days it’s easy to go caravanning and stay Fabyouless.
Nikki said: “This is the first ever Caravan Clubbing Glamour Vanning event and what we wanted to do is to put caravans in a location where people wouldn’t actually expect to see caravans – it’s such an iconic location.”
She added: “Airstream and Company and Airstream Europe are selling the T@B caravans now and they are really cute and funky, so we’ve got the off-road one here and the very small, very versatile one and it just shows you that you can take these all over the place and you can travel anywhere.”
Debbie Arnold, ambassador of the Fabyouless Card and soap star who has appeared on EastEnders, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks and Coronation Street, talked us through the concept.
Debbie said: “A lot of people associate camping and caravanning, with people who don’t look after themselves and it isn’t all about that now, it’s about the glamour that goes with it.”
“With our card, you can get 25% off or 2-for-1 all over the country, so when you go in your caravan you stop off and you get soaking wet, you’ll go ‘It’s alright, I’ve got my Fabyouless card, I can go to my local salon and get a local blow-dry!'”
“You can ring up a salon, book an appointment and you know they are recommended by us too. You have to sign-up to get the card, it’s £29.95 per year and from there it’s 25% off saloons around the country.”
How good do we look?
The Airstream T@B caravans at Southbank were the L400 TD3, the larger make starting from £15,000, equipped with a toilet, shower and sink as well as a large amounts of storage space.
For entry-level value, the smaller Airstream 320 Off-road T@B caravan, starts from £9k.
The Airstream caravans sure were making a great impression on the guests, as they couldn’t help but compliment these innovative, adventure travel trailers.
Mums, Lizzie and Shelly decided to leave the men elsewhere and head out for a busy day in London with their young ones, Aurora and Amalie and their Nan.
Despite being more camper tent types rather than caravan fans, they stopped by the Airstream caravans and came away with some warm words.
“They’re surprisingly big, I think, I wasn’t expecting it to be that big,” said Lindsay. Whereas Shelly commented on the large windows: “It’s was nice and airy…that’s the bit I like the light comes in and it’s fantastic.”
Lindsay said: “I could go for one like that because their just so gorgeous, and it wouldn’t be as bad to pull around. I don’t like the idea of pulling a big caravan around they can be quite scary, whereas that’s really lovely. They are like a baby version of the Airstream.”
Another British couple, David and Shelia told us that they were considering purchasing a caravan, and with the countless positive comments, the Airstream would definitely be their best bet.
David was particularly impressed by how far caravans had come in recent years, saying:
“Now there is so much more inside them, the heating, the fridges, shower and cooker, every bit of space is well thought out.”
How about the music?
The musical entertainment for the day was provided by Surrey-born Talia Janson, daughter of Debbie Arnold and actress on the reality TV show, Surrey Hills.
Talia performed an acoustic set with her guitarist and was joined by her friends in joyous stage invasion.
Talia has been singing for five years since she left school at 16 to pursue her number one passion. It has been a good start for Talia, as she has toured with JLS and performed with Peter Andre, Dolly Rockers, N-Dubz and Basshunter in the past.
There were further celebrity appearances across the weekend, including journalist Simon Calder and actor Michael Howe stopping by to check out the retro caravans.
If you missed out this time around, don’t worry as The Caravan Club plans to host similar events like this in the future. So keep your eyes and ears alert for the next Caravan pop-up event, with new model caravans and one-time only freebies.
