Festival Group Fancy Dress Ideas | Steampunk Space Pirate Fancy Dress & Face Paint ideas

Its always difficult to choose a theme for large group fancy dress as there can be limited characters for people to choose from. In my experience it's better to choose a general theme rather than a specific film, book etc. If the fancy dress is for a festival it's also best to choose something adaptable to the weather as you don't want to be stuck in the wrong outfit if it's really hot or pouring with rain. 

At this year's Glastonbury Festival we decided that we would dress as pirates but with a festival twist, so we decided on going as space pirates, so we could incorporate glitter, space and steampunk elements into our costumes. We also took influence from post-apocalyptic films such as Mad Max and Tank Girl, films set in space such as Star Wars plus pirate influences from Adam Ant and The Pirates of the Caribbean but with LOTS of glitter thrown in. As we kept the theme quite loose, it meant we could be quite free with our costumes, so our group included glittery mermaids, traditional pirates, cyber punk style buccaneers and steam punk wenches!

Festival Pirate Costume Ideas

The great thing about the pirate fancy dress theme is that you can easily create the outfit using a few props and some face paint. With any festival costume I think the easiest thing is to use things you already have. If you're anything like me then your dressing up box contains a range of corsets, leggings and wigs, so it's easy to add a few silver bits and accessories, jewellery and face paint to achieve this look. Alternatively, if this isn't an option you can scout around charity shops or buy a costume and simply add a few pirate-y bits and pieces. My favourite costumes I think would work really well for this pirate theme and could also easily be adapted are this Rey costume from Star Wars, this shiny spaceman costume and this cool looking pirate costume.

Pirate Costume Top Tips:

• You can use a silver glitter spray, but I found this edible cake spray is a safe way to spray your face and it has a really good depth of colour
• Wear lots of belts criss crossed across the body so they look like holsters
• Temporary tattoos such as these traditional sailor style tattoos look great
• False eyelashes in neon or silver work well with this look
• Accessorise with chunky pirate themed jewellery, skull and crossbones and hooped earrings

Festival Pirate Accessories

The cheapest way of creating the pirate look is with a pirate hat. Party Packs have a great selection from £5 including a traditional style pirate hat, pirate hats with ribbons, ornate pirate hats ones with feathers and pirate hats with attached dreadlocks a la Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean. Some other great low cost accessories include this fab stuffed parrot that you can tie onto your shoulder, a glamorous gold trimmed pirate's eye patch, steampunk style pirate's pistol and pirate's sword. To add a bit of festival glitter to your outfit you can customise your accessories with these great adhesive mirrored mosaic tiles. They are really good value and add a bit of instant glamour to any outfit - as you can see Ben has customised his pirate's eye patch and it looks amazing! 

Festival Pirate Wigs

A brightly coloured wig look fantastic at a festival and it also a really practical way of keeping warm in the evening. These gorgeous wigs would look great teamed with a pirate hat. I particularly love the two tone pink and blonde wig and the neon pink wig, but this pale pink mermaid wig and this silver wig would also look great with lots of sequins and glitter. For those who are going for a more traditional pirate look, there are lots of great pirate wigs available including a pretty brown pirate wig with bandana and plaits, a Pirates of the Caribbean style dreadlocked pirate wig, and my favourite, this full plaited beard and silver wig set.

Glittery Pirate Face Paint

The main thing that elevates these costumes from your usual pirate to a sparkly festival pirate is of course the glitter! The colour doesn't really matter and neither does the style, so you could go for an Adam Ant style striped mask across the eyes, glitter around the eyes or a completely silver face (and/or beard). I find vaseline combined with glitter dust has the longest wear or use face paint such as metallic silver face paint for larger areas. For more pirate fancy dress ideas check out the Party Packs pirate page and our Pinterest board.