Described as ‘A Festival of Curiosities and
Wonders’, this event has been taking place on Eastbourne Seafront for a couple
of years now. It’s been a fairly eventual period, with the Eastbourne Bonfire
Society taking over from the original festival organisers for the 2016 event.
Steampunk and subversion
That might need some explanation to those not
familiar with the obsessive Sussex fixation with bonfires. So … bonfire
societies abound in Sussex, with Lewes Bonfire being the most famous, regularly
making it to the national news but Brighton comes close, with ‘Burning the
Clocks’, an illuminated street parade that has been in existence since 1994. So
for the Eastbourne Bonfire Society to be organising the Steampunk Festival
links two forms of subversive activities … and it could be quite conflagratory!
Eastbourne has been famous in the past for
Victorian cycling races, tea duelling (seeing how long you can hold your
biscuit in a cup of hot tea until it crumbles) and music. Especially music!
We’ve been very fond of the Masquerade Ball, which takes place this year on
Saturday 10 September at the Winter Gardens, Eastbourne. It’s just £15.00 for a
ticket to the ball, which we think is exceptionally good value for money.
Dressing for a steampunk ball
While the weekend is family friendly -
especially along the promenade - the ball itself is adults only, partly because
it includes Victorian pole-dancing (the mind boggles, maybe we’ll manage to
snap some photos!) performance art and a fairground, as well as live music from
local bands. The masquerade is, of course, masked, although it’s not
obligatory. But if you want to go incognito, we have all the steampunk clothing
your dark heart could require. For example: a pair of steampunk goggles makes an ideal
mask, being both a classic steampunk accessory and a great way of hiding your
identity. Allied to our warrior corset, with its brass finish, it provides a brazenly
bold steampunk identity!
Perhaps you prefer a more understated look, in
which case it’s totally acceptable to blend modern and steampunk to hybridise
your appearance. If you’d prefer the hybrid look, try a pirate coat over a
modern dress or a steampunk corset allied to a good pair of jeans. For male
steampunks, a Victorian solider, mad scientist or explorer look is a good
option, or simply a leather jacket over a frilled shirt with a black eye mask,
which is very Colin Firth!
As usual there are a range of stalls from which
you can buy steampunk accessories but past year’s have shown us that the
selection of goods is quite limited so if you have money to spend on your
steampunk style, Eastbourne is not the shopping venue that you might be hoping
for.
No comments:
Post a Comment