Kent Roller Girls

As a total newbie to the world of roller derby, I have to admit I was nervous as hell when Sugar & Vice were asked to do a stall at Kent Roller Girl's first ever home bout. I'm ashamed to say that my knowledge of the sport was limited to having watched Whip It a couple of times and having a vague, passing knowledge that it was pretty retro and seemed to be big in the States. Other than that, my only connection was that my cats name came from a drunken conversation between friends about what our hypothetical derby names would be. (I chose Lucille Maul.)

We spent a week in the run up working ridiculously long hours, making enough jewellery for the stall in addition to the regular workload, and since stalls is not something we do very regularly at all, making sure our set up was presentable enough. I've known that Sugar & Vice is popular among the derby crowd for a while now and I suspect it's probably for two reasons; firstly that we are most famous for our personalised name necklaces, and what better way to announce their awesome derby names than with one of those? The second reason was something that came to me recently; our company name sounds like a derby name! 

We arrived at Herne Bay High School (which was so swanky, it put my old, shabby high school to shame) at around midday on Saturday and set up pretty quickly. We were sandwiched between two other stalls, the wonderful Rollerbootique and the awesome Custom My Little Ponies by Alex K (my willpower may have failed me when it came to the amazing ponies she had for sale).

This stall was pretty different to any I've done before. Previously, doing stalls has meant being exceptionally patient during the inevitable quiet moments but at this event, there was no time to get bored. When we had a quiet moment this time, we were entertained by the awesome derby. I have to say, I hadn't been entirely sure what to expect but everyone at the event was incredibly lovely and super friendly, the derby ladies were badass and the crowd was massively enthusiastic. I think I've developed a bit of an obsession. 

If you've never been to a derby bout, I can thoroughly recommend it. Doing a stall there was a fantastic experience. The sport itself is amazing, the ladies on the track are pretty inspirational and the people are some of the loveliest I've met in my time running Sugar & Vice. If, like me, you're unsure of it and don't know what to expect, just go along to a local bout. You won't regret it. I, for one, am really excited about KRG's next home bout, whether my place is behind a stall or in the bleachers :)

xxx