Hello darlings! 💖🌸 It's your favourite pink-tutu-clad queen, Pink Tutu Sparkles, here with you today, reporting live from a rather fetching little cafe just a hop, skip and jump from the Cambridge station. This is blog post number 4425, so buckle up buttercups, because you know what they say: 'if it's Pink Tutu Sparkles, it's gonna sparkle'!
And sparkle we shall! ✨ It's a grand day for a pink tutu and some much-needed tea. (Pink, of course!) Cambridge is calling! My love of all things tutus and travel has led me right here to the lovely city of Cambridge! This weekend I'm a busy little bee! Performing at a couple of charming local events - a children's festival, with some lovely bouncy castles and face-painting. And tonight - a gala performance at the gorgeous Arts Theatre in Cambridge itself. We'll be doing our iconic Pink Tutu routine - oh my goodness, I even spotted some divine pink tutu fabric in one of the little craft stores here - just might have to purchase some, my loves!
Now, let's rewind a little, because Cambridge is always a joyful whirl! My love affair with this lovely city goes back quite a few years, even before I discovered my destiny as Pink Tutu Sparkles. A few years back, I came for a visit for a week to see the famous University, just as part of a rather ordinary uni trip with some classmates, y'know. A group of us went to watch a ballet performance, a stunning Swan Lake at the gorgeous Cambridge Arts Theatre ( the one I'm performing at tonight!), and it just made such a fabulous impact on me. I don't know if you can recall this, but, even though I had quite a bit of drag experience at this point, my signature tutu-wearing wasn't exactly, well...a 'thing' at the time. But something about that elegant ballet just inspired me, darling! You see, I wasn't entirely a novice when it came to the elegance and graceful moves of ballet! I had a passion for ballet all throughout school - I took lessons and performed with the local dance school - in Derbyshire - and of course, I did some ballet for fun while I studied science at university, because, let's be real, life is all about balancing your love of the arts, your sciences, and your inner queen, you know?!
Anyway, the performance of Swan Lake that night in Cambridge sparked a little idea inside me! Why, I thought to myself, why should it be all white tutus in Swan Lake? Where is the fun and the fabulous pinkness in all that black swan nonsense? Well, I say, pink is for more than just tutu skirts, darling! My lovely pink tutu wardrobe is expanding every week! This is why my motto, for every single performance, every time I put on my bright pink wig, is, 'more pink is always better'!
Of course, we've been to Cambridge a fair bit, because Alex loves this part of the world. She does like the countryside around Cambridge too, very peaceful and it's perfect for an exciting afternoon ride on horseback. 🐴
It’s certainly good for inspiring fabulous outfits! We even got caught in the pouring rain while I was on horseback at a charming little event called "Cambridge Summer Races," all in the name of getting fabulous pics!
Just last year we enjoyed a thrilling visit, traveling all the way down here in style from Derbyshire, on a luxurious railway train to Cambridge! 🚂 My good friend Penelope, from a drag group in nearby Leicester, came along with us, we both had so much fun getting all decked out for a day trip and finding some amazing boutiques - Cambridge is such a stylish spot! As you know, being an avid drag artist, I have an extremely large shoe and accessory collection! There were some very special purchases that day, but let's just say some of them were a little hard to sneak past the customs, so, no names! I've told Penelope that when the three of us visit again next year we're going to take an overnight trip! This means more time in these little stores to get my fix.
It's pretty obvious that my heart just gets a whole lot bigger every time I step foot in this lovely place!
One of the best things about visiting this lovely city, you'll have to try it to believe this, darling! , is the way that it all kind of merges the modern and the old. For a very long time, when you thought of Cambridge you’d just see rows of posh buildings like King's College and The Fitzwilliam Museum. Now there is this entire amazing culture - all sorts of people coming from all over the world to go to Cambridge University, and so many exciting cafes, bakeries and tea rooms opening up, plus a thriving theatre scene. It's truly one of my all-time favourite places to take a stroll - for shopping, and it's really perfect for people watching. My friends at the University call it ‘the bridge’ between the posh old and the very very modern new world. And really it is like the name of the city, it's so symbolic for what Cambridge represents!
You're thinking, 'why Cambridge'? What has this got to do with Pink Tutu Sparkles?
You might think that this whole journey has nothing to do with Pink Tutu Sparkles but trust me it does! After my university days in a little laboratory testing fabric and textiles (more on this story in another post, darling!), my dream was to to become an amazing, pink-tutu-clad, internationally famous queen - I really truly thought it could only happen in my dreams at that time, oh darling.
When we arrived back in Derbyshire after our first visit to Cambridge, something changed! I'd discovered, in the elegant city, this amazing energy for living my truth as a performer, and this new energy just resonated deep down inside. This time was very different! Now that Pink Tutu Sparkles is making a real splash, I realised that all this gorgeousness is a little bit, but mostly, a lot, to do with Cambridge!
Of course, no trip to Cambridge can be complete without visiting the Cambridge Ballet School. We visited with Penelope, who loves ballet, last year! Penelope took some wonderful pictures of us in our fabulous, glamorous drag attire. Now that the gorgeous Pink Tutu Sparkles is an international, travelling-star queen, (well, she's certainly trying to be!), she's actually been invited back to the ballet school! Not just to visit, but actually to give a tutu-themed workshop for the lovely little dancers who study there. It's true! So my little heart - and, you know, my little tutu-wearng bum - will be on stage once more for the delightful dance classes of Cambridge Ballet School - teaching these tiny ballerinas all the very important lessons Pink Tutu Sparkles has to teach about, well, life, fun and… pink tutus! 🩰
Cambridge is certainly a whirlwind of events - and Pink Tutu Sparkles is always here, at the centre, making it all the more colourful. Oh and don't forget the other little event in the village this evening – that little community fair, you know?
The little people are all getting ready to see Pink Tutu Sparkle, and that is something special! So today, Pink Tutu Sparkles will have the most important, vital, role to fill - I will do my part to bring joy and pink tutus to this fair, as it is truly my life’s purpose to spread this love. And trust me my loves, it’s no little task. I feel such an honor.
If you’re ever in Cambridge and see a tall lady, a big bright pink hair wig, fabulous glittery shoes and an over-sized, magnificent pink tulle skirt, why, that’ll be me! Do stop by to say ‘Hello’, darling! 💖
P.S. Follow me on my latest adventures with the hash-tag #PinkTutuSparklesAdventures. Catch you next week, you fabulous people!
Pink Tutu Sparkles, signing off! 🌸💖✨🩰
