There Were No Plain Janes at the Old Mandeville Jane Austen Festival.

Festival committee members Diane Rosiere, Richard Boyd, K.B. Richardson and Julie Egle Adam Rodgers, Frank Stansbury and Dylan Charlet (Participants in the Looking for Mr. Darcy contest)

Kerri Blache, along with a group of volunteers who share a fascination with England and Jane Austen novels, put together first annual Old Mandeville Jane Austen Festival, during the weekend of Feb. 16-17, with an overall mission to foster the fine art of letter writing – a recurring motif in the works of Jane Austen.

The festival held two major competitions; one involved judging gentlemen, the Mr. Darcy contest (of Pride and Prejudice fame), and the other was the “perfect love letter writing contest.” The weekend festivities also included staged readings, a “No Plain Janes” costume contest, costumed characters, demonstrations of crafts of the Austen era, carriage rides, music and plenty of cuisine for festival-goers.