Take part in a VE Day celebration at the 2020 Goodwood Revival

That’s right, the 2020 Revival will look back at ‘VE Day’, or ‘Victory in Europe Day’, with a special moment on Sunday September 13^th, during which you can join thousands of other spectators in period dress on the track. Dozens of period vehicles will flood the circuit too, to recreate the famous scene of The Mall at the end of the war in Europe. On that momentous day, people crowded into (and sometimes onto!) whatever vehicles they could find – delivery vans, milk floats, flat-bed lorries, military vehicles and bicycles, as well as more conventional cars and buses – to join the euphoric scenes outside Buckingham Palace. At the Revival this September, anyone wearing appropriate period attire will be allowed onto the track, and a lucky few will be invited to join a celebratory ‘victory lap’ of the circuit aboard one of the vehicles. If you’re not sure what to wear, a 1940s style guide will be released ahead of the 2020 Revival, giving you the chance to get ready for your walk on the track as one of many thousands winding the clocks back by 75 years.

The party atmosphere isn’t just for Sunday, however, as Gate 2, the main pedestrian gate for the event, will capture the excitement of VE Day with a huge, weekend-long British street party. There will be long tables, bunting, old newspapers and period vehicles, with live bands and old gramophone records providing the soundtrack when Goodwood’s resident Spitfires aren’t roaring overhead. Basically, you'll head home at the end of the day and forget that mobile phones are a thing and that rationing ended 66 years ago.

Henry Bass, General Manager of the Goodwood Revival, commented: “This year’s VE Day commemorations mark one of the great landmarks of the 20^th Century, and celebrate a victory towards which Goodwood’s wartime service made a tremendous contribution.

“There can be nowhere better to recreate that heady sense of relief that the conflict had ended in Europe, and to reflect upon the experience of those who had lived through so much, as a key feature of this year’s Revival.”

Fashion image by Amy Shore.