Vintage Brighton editor Jo-ann Fortune delves into the Laura Ashley archive for a piece in Mollie Makes magazine this month, ahead of the British brand’s 60 year exhibition at The Vinyl Factory on 5-6 June.

The Spiegeltent has returned to the Old Steine for its annual residency as part of The Brighton Festival, boasting a line-up that includes award-winning cabaret La Clique, the theatrical Mikelangelo & The Black Sea Gentlemen and The Ray Charles Experience as well as Festival acts and club nights.

To find out more about this enchanting orginal Art Nouveau venue, we caught up with producer of The Famous Spiegel Garden, David Bates…

How old is the Spiegeltent that is in town for The Brighton Festival?

This spiegeltent is called The Moulin Rouge and was built in 1918 in Herentals in Belgium. The builders were Oscar Mols Dom and Louis Gorr.

What type of acts would have performed in the Spiegeltent in the late and early 19th and 20th centuries?

Spiegeltents were originally travelling dance halls so most of the entertainment was in the form of travelling dance organs and live dance bands. They travelled with the fairgrounds, which came to villages once a year. Spiegeltents collect the ghosts of their previous locations and these ghosts come out every time the containers are opened. So like may old buildings the sense of history is palpable and adds to the experience.

The works of Brighton real film photographer Toby Mason and Margate printed furniture designer Zoe Murphy will share space in the former’s North Laine home as part of the Brighton Artists Open House Festival this May

When we spotted Diane Chandler’s up-cycled dolls’ head cactus planters at the Johnny Loves June Vintage & Handmade Fair in Shoreham, we had to find out more…

When antiques expert Alex MacArthur closed her eponymous Kemptown shop after seven years, she opened the doors of her theatrical four-storey Regency home to act as a invite-only showroom for her finds.

While her school friends’ bedroom walls were plastered were pictures of Duran Duran in the 1980s, owner of The Picture Emporium Sam Hart “had a weird collection of Victorian grannies” on hers. Easy to see then, how over two decades later she can be found selling vintage prints in Department Flea Market.

The great thing about the South East’s vintage scene is that it isn’t the sole preserve of city types. And if there were ever proof needed that vintage events can thrive in quieter towns around the not-so-big city, it was there in abundance at Johnny Loves June’s Vintage & Handmade Fair in Shoreham.

When shooting for its spring/summer Lookbook, TK Maxx didn’t reserve this season’s geometric shapes and colour pops for clothes and accessories. It plastered them all over the walls too…

Trudi Davies’ vintage fabric creations invoke a nostalgia of childhood, holidays and general joyful occasions. Here she lets us in on her inspiration and obsessions…

Building on the success of two smaller fairs last year, Johnny Loves June moves to The Shoreham Centre for its biggest ever event on Saturday 6 April.

Simone Bennett opened the doors to Keep it Vintage in Hove at the end of last year. Here she explains how she picks the pieces that make the shop a constantly changing source of interior inspiration.

Just a ten minute train journey away from Brighton, Pop-Up Vintage in Hassocks offers a great excuse to get out of the city on a busy Saturday. Well worth the price of a return ticket…

Belle’s Events is hosting its first vintage and retro fair on 26 May and is offering one lucky Vintage Brighton reader the chance to win a stall for the day, plus a side-bar advert online.

Belle’s was founded when organisers Kelly and Joss Wickon started hiring out their VW Beetle ‘Belle’ to wedding parties in early 2012 and identified a growing demand for vintage events.

“I’ve been blown away by some of the divine vintage and retro ideas I’ve come across at our fairs”, says Kelly. “The wedding events have given me taste for running a more general vintage and retro fair as there is so much scope.”

The Horsham fair will offer vintage and retro fashion, accessories, furniture, kitchenalia, homewares and toys, as well a pop-up vintage tea room, beauty parlour, photo booth and makers’ craft corner.

For your chance to win a pitch at the fair (worth £48) plus a side-bar advert on the event homepage (worth £30), simply leave a comment on this post telling us about your favourite vintage fair find. Deadline for entries is 28 March and a winner will be picked at random and contacted via the e-mail address used to comment during the week commencing 1 April.

A new vintage pop-up charity shop has just opened in Brighton’s Lanes, offering furniture, homewares, clothing, accessories and adding to the Martlets’ vintage empire.

Celebrating its 60th anniversary, G Plan is relaunching ‘The World’s Most Comfortable Chair’. The 6250 model, famously featured in the ’67 Bond movie You Only Live Twice is being relaunched as The Sixty Two chair.