Blackpool May Festival 2019

The annual Blackpool Dance Competition is a well-established and prestigious event amongst the dancing world which dates all the way back to 1920. With over 2950 entries, Blackpool Dance Competition provides a reputable platform to showcase Ballroom and Latin dancers from around the world. It even offers opportunities for young, amateur and senior dancers to display their talents to the dancing community.

Freed of London have had the pleasure of partaking in this marvellous event for a long while now, and this time was particularly significant as Freed of London celebrated their 90th Anniversary this year – what a milestone! We especially enjoy heading over to Blackpool because it gives us a chance to catch up with our customers, old friends and familiar faces which is always delightful.

It’s always a treat to see our Ballroom and Latin shoes in action, and we were honoured to see all of our amazing sponsored dancers who took part this year. We are especially proud to announce that our sponsored dancers Domen Krapez and Natascha Karabey came in 2nd place in the professional ballroom dancing championship this year.

The Freed of London team also had the pleasure of announcing and showcasing all of our new products across our Ballroom and Latin lines. This year, we are very excited to team up with three esteemed dancers as we release six new American Smooth shoe designs.

Our first collaboration was with the very well established Paul Holmes. The ‘Holmes One’ black patent lace-up shoes are elegant and sleek with a toe cap panel for a further classical feel. The ‘Holmes two’ black patent shoes use less panelling for a simpler more modest look and feel; the sleek design and manufacturing of these shoes means they will never feel outdated.

The second dancer we collaborated with was the utterly brilliant Alexandra Perzhu. The graceful satin closed toe ‘Alex P One’ shoes feature a four panel vamp with curvature design which sits on a 2½” heel. The simpler ‘Alex P Two’ satin shoes still feature a 2½” heel and closed toe, but has four strips and two panels on the vamps, creating a more chic structure. Both shoes are finished with an exclusive ‘AP’ buckle, making this collaboration extra special.

And finally, the superb Tomas Mielnicki. The ‘Tomas One’ black patent shoes are simplistic and appear seamless, that paired with a neoprene panel on the inner part of the foot allows for a distinctive shoe. The ‘Tomas Two’ black patent shoes see more panels, elasticated sides and split soles for ultimate comfort and flexibility.

What an honour to have worked with these brilliant dancers so we could create six fabulously unique shoe lines for our American Smooth collection. We were also excited to reveal eight more new releases in our Ballroom, Latin and Social collections – we absolutely loved sharing these with our excited customers and new comers in Blackpool.

The Blackpool Dance Competition was a wonderful experience for the entire Freed of London team, and for yet another year we were honoured to be a part of such a renowned and influential event. See you next time Blackpool!