Watch City Steampunk Festival

Last updated
Watch City Steampunk Festival
Watch City Steampunk Festival logo.png
Statusactive
Genre Steampunk
FrequencyAnnually
Location(s) Waltham, MA
Years active12
Inaugurated2010
AttendanceEst. 5000+
Patron(s)Downtown Waltham Partnership (2015-current) Charles River Museum (2010-2013)
Website www.watchcityfestival.com

Watch City Steampunk Festival, previously known as "International Steampunk City" and the "Watch City Festival," is the oldest annual open-air, indoor/outdoor steampunk festival in the United States, and is held in Waltham, Massachusetts. It began in 2011 as a fundraiser by [1] and for the benefit of the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation, [2] [3] which suffered significant flood damage in March 2010. [4] The original event pioneered a new model of science fiction convention in which the broader, non-fandom public community was deliberately engaged by presenting events and programming in city spaces and local businesses often free to the public. This is still a primary feature of the Festival today.

Contents

According to then CRMII Executive Director and first Festival Director Elln Hagny, the event was inspired by the success of two events in 2010: the New England Steampunk Festival [5] and a steampunk exhibit, organized by Bruce Rosenbaum of ModVic, called "Steampunk: Form & Function," the first steampunk exhibit featured in a major American museum. [6] [7]

The Charles River Museum ceased its direct involvement in organizing the Festival after 2013. There was no festival in 2014.

In 2015, renamed the Watch City Steampunk Festival, the event returned. Now under the auspices of the Downtown Waltham Partnership, [8] a Waltham-based nonprofit supporting the city's community, it became a more city-centric event.

In addition to that significant change, the 2015 Festival calendar was scaled back slightly to evening events on Friday and the full outdoor festival occurring only on Saturday (previous years had the Festival continuing through until Sunday), allowing for a Sunday rain date in the event of inclement weather. 2015 was the first year that the full schedule of daytime festival events was entirely free to the public.

The Festival brought in an estimated Saturday attendance of over 10,000 at the 2015 event. [9]

While the programming is typical of a steampunk festival, including art exhibitions, panel discussions on a variety of topics, steampunk music, crafts workshops, vendors, and performances, [1] the Watch City Steampunk Festival uniquely makes extensive use of its host city's public spaces and Waltham's unique place in the history of American industry. It fosters interaction with both local businesses and organizations, making it truly a Waltham community event. [8]

The Festival continued in 2016, with a Friday evening gala on May 6 and the main festival on Saturday, May 7. In 2017, with the Friday, May 12 evening event included a free, outdoor circus-style fire performance preceding the kickoff gala, and the main event held on the Common on Saturday, May 13. [10] [11]

The Festival date for 2018 was May 12 with a day-long circus theme. [12] This year was the first without a Friday night event. There was rain throughout the day. As a result, attendance was slightly down from prior years. Still, the 2018 Festival was a success, with the steampunk attendees and public defying the weather to enjoy the activities and attractions. [13]

The 2019 Watch City Steampunk Festival was held Saturday, May 11, with a Friday evening kickoff dinner featuring featured festival performer Professor Elemental. [14]

The 2020 Watch City Steampunk Festival was cancelled due to COVID-19. [15]

The 2021 Festival was present as an online-only event on May 8, 2021. [16] The festival theme was a historical/literary pastiche pitting puppet versions of Jules Verne and H.G. Welles against one another in a fictional race to the moon.

In July 2021, Saturday, May 7, 2022 was announced as the date for the first in-person festival in almost three years. [17] [18] The event, with finale performer highlight Celtica Nova, was held successfully and was extremely well-attended and received. [19]

The Festival's website has announced that the next event will be Saturday, May 13, 2023. [20]

Past events

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steampunk</span> Science fiction genre inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery

Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian era or the American "Wild West", where steam power remains in mainstream use, or in a fantasy world that similarly employs steam power.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waltham, Massachusetts</span> City in Massachusetts, United States

Waltham is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the city was a prototype for 19th century industrial city planning, spawning what became known as the Waltham-Lowell system of labor and production. The city is now a center for research and higher education, home to Brandeis University and Bentley University as well as industrial powerhouse Raytheon Technologies. The population was 65,218 at the census in 2020.

Whitby Goth Weekend, abbreviated to WGW or nicknamed Whitby, is a twice-yearly music festival for the gothic subculture, in Whitby, North Yorkshire, England, organised by Jo Hampshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T in the Park</span> Music festival in Scotland, 1994 to 2016

T in the Park festival was a major Scottish music festival that was held annually from 1994 to 2016. It was named after its main sponsor, Tennents. The event was held at Strathclyde Park, Lanarkshire, until 1996. It then moved to the disused Balado airfield, Perth and Kinross, from 1997 to 2014. In 2015 the festival moved to Strathallan Castle. It was originally held over two days, and extended to three days from 2007. In 2016 the daily capacity was 70,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rex Trailer</span>

Rex Trailer was a Boston-based regional television personality, broadcast pioneer, cowboy and Country and Western recording artist. He is best known as the host of the children's television show Boomtown which initially ran from 1956 through 1974.

BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend (R1BW) is a British music festival run by the BBC's radio station. It is held once a year, in a different location within the United Kingdom each time. It was the biggest free-ticketed music event in Europe, until a fee for tickets was introduced in 2018, and always includes a host of new artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority</span> Massachusetts based bus transit system

Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority (CCRTA) operates a bus transit system of fixed and flexible routes, seasonal rail service to Boston, and a paratransit service in the Cape Cod region of Massachusetts. The CCRTA was created under the provisions of Chapter 161B of the Massachusetts General Laws in 1976. Its main hub and base of operations is the Hyannis Transportation Center on Main Street in Hyannis, Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Godiva Festival</span> Three day music festival held each year in Coventry, England

The Godiva Festival is a three-day music festival held each year in the War Memorial Park, Coventry, England, named after the city's famous former inhabitant Lady Godiva. It first appeared as a day-long event in 1997 and became a 3-day event the following year in 1998. It is the largest family music festival in the UK, and is made up of two fields; a Main Field and a Family field, which each offer a different experience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yarmouth Clam Festival</span>

The Yarmouth Clam Festival is an annual three-day event which takes place in Yarmouth, Maine, starting on the third Friday every July. Established in 1965 as a successor to the town's late-August Old Home Week, it is hosted by the Yarmouth Chamber of Commerce, with the aim of raising money for approximately thirty local non-profit organizations, churches, and school groups. The event draws visitors from all over the country. As a result, Yarmouth, a town with a population of around 9,000, accommodates approximately 120,000 people over the course of the weekend. A section of the former population have made it a tradition to stake out their Friday-evening parade viewpoint with a chair several weeks before the event — even as early as May, though this may be in an ironic fashion.

Bats Day in the Fun Park, also known as Bats Day, Goth Day, Goth Day at Disneyland, The Spooky Trip to Disneyland Resort, CA., Bats Day in the Park and Bats Day Out, started in August 1999 as a joint effort between the promoters of the goth, industrial, and deathrock clubs Absynthe and Release the Bats. It has become an annual three-day event taking place in Anaheim, CA, United States near Disneyland. In previous years, the events commenced on the weekend before Labor Day. Since about 2008, Bats Day event weekends have usually happened on the first or third weekend in May.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vernian Process</span> American avant-garde band

Vernian Process is an American band formed in San Francisco in 2003. Taking its name from the works of 19th century author Jules Verne, Vernian Process is a band that creates music themed around Victorian scientific romance and its modern counterpart steampunk. Their sound is a fusion of modern and old-world styles including gothic-rock darkwave, progressive rock, neoclassical, trip hop, ragtime, and other related genres. The band consists of vocalist Joshua A. Pfeiffer, and multi-instrumentalists Martín Irigoyen, Steven Farrell, and Vincent Van Veen.

<i>Cambridge Chronicle</i> Newspaper serving Cambridge, MA, US; oldest surviving newspaper in the U.S.

The Cambridge Chronicle is a weekly newspaper that serves Cambridge, Massachusetts. The newspaper was founded by Andrew Reid in May 1846 and is the oldest weekly newspaper in the United States. Owned by Gannett, it serves 18% of Cambridge's households.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waltham High School</span> School in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States

Waltham High School is a public high school located in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is the only high school operated by Waltham Public Schools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation</span> Museum in Waltham, Massachusetts, U.S.

Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation is a museum of the American Industrial Revolution located on the Charles River Bike Path, near the intersection of the Charles River and Moody Street in Waltham, Massachusetts. It houses and displays machinery and artifacts of the industrial revolution from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The building was originally built as part of the Boston Manufacturing Company, Francis Cabot Lowell's seminal, fully integrated textile mill. The museum, which was incorporated in 1980 and opened to the public in 1988, takes up only a small portion of the previous mill building complex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freedom Festival, Hull</span> Music and performance arts festival held annually in Kingston upon Hull, England

The Freedom Festival is an annual music and performance arts festival held in the city of Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is named in honour of the slave trade abolitionist, MP and son of Hull, William Wilberforce. The festival was established in 2007 to mark the 200th anniversary of Wilberforce's law, the Slave Trade Act 1807, to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">League of STEAM</span> American performance art troupe

The League of S.T.E.A.M., a.k.a. the "Steampunk Ghostbusters", is an American performance art troupe from Southern California popular in the steampunk community and specializing in live interactive themed entertainment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">G. D. Falksen</span> American writer

Geoffrey D. Falksen is an American steampunk writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weekend at the Asylum</span>

Weekend at the Asylum is likely the largest and longest running steampunk festival in the world. Since 2009, the festival has been held each year in Lincoln and currently stretches over multiple venues in the historic cathedral quarter of Lincoln town, Lincoln Castle and Bishop Grosseteste University. It is run as a not-for-profit event organised by the now Ministry of Steampunk, previously the Victorian Steampunk Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steampunk City</span> Annual steampunk festival held in Morristown, New Jersey

International Steampunk City is an annual steampunk festival. It is currently held in the Historic Speedwell area of Morristown, New Jersey, United States, and was previously hosted in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Bruce Rosenbaum is an American artist and designer. He is known for his work in Steampunk design, both in his home, The Steampunk House, and for what is produced by his company, ModVic. He has been called the steampunk guru by the Wall Street Journal and steampunk evangelist by Wired Magazine.

References

  1. 1 2 Woodman, Tenley (May 6, 2011). "Steam Punked Waltham goes full-steam ahead". Boston Herald. Retrieved January 11, 2012. Waltham's downtown will be transformed into a Victorian-era, science-fiction fantasyland.
  2. ↑ Hecht, James (May 2, 2011). "Welcome to Steampunk City, MA". New Scientist. Retrieved January 11, 2012. Proceeds from the event will go to help the museum, which was flooded last year when the Charles overflowed its banks.
  3. ↑ Doctorow, Cory (February 13, 2011). "Waltham, Mass becomes Steampunkville". BoingBoing. Retrieved January 11, 2012.
  4. ↑ Burge, Kathy (March 16, 2010). "Waltham museum director vows to reopen". Boston Globe. Retrieved January 11, 2012.
  5. ↑ Anderson, Leslie (February 16, 2011). "Citywide steampunk festival pays homage to Waltham's history" . Retrieved March 20, 2012.
  6. ↑ Fenton, Cheryl (March 21, 2011). "Steampunk hits home". Stuff Magazine. Retrieved March 20, 2012. Through May 10, CRMII is hosting "Steampunk: Form & Function," the first exhibit of its kind to be featured in a major American museum.
  7. ↑ Muther, Christopher (May 5, 2011). "Steampunks have a city to call home: Waltham gears up for weekend festival". Boston Globe. "The steampunks clearly needed a place to call home, says Hagney. "At last year's museum event, I watched each person walk through the door, and it looked like they had finally found a place where they could be themselves. It was pretty remarkable.
  8. 1 2 3 Grannan-Doll, Ryan (May 4, 2015). "Watch City Steampunk Festival returns to Waltham". Wicked Local Waltham.
  9. ↑ Perry, Bob (May 19, 2015). "Waltham Voices: Thankful for many Steampunk partners". Wicked Local Waltham.
  10. ↑ Porter Brown, Nell. "Industrial Origins". www.harvardmagazine.com.
  11. ↑ Laguarda, Ignacio (May 5, 2017). "Steampunk Festival returns this weekend". waltham.wickedlocal.com.
  12. ↑ Staff (April 21, 2018). "Steampunk Meets the Big Top: The Watch City Steampunk Festival returns to Waltham, Mass., this time with a circus theme". steampunk-explorer.com.
  13. ↑ Russell, Melissa (May 14, 2018). "Waltham steampunk festival draws crowds, despite rain".
  14. 1 2 Feltner, Kerey (May 7, 2019). "Q&A with Professor Elemental, special guest of Watch City Steampunk Festival". Wicked Local Waltham.
  15. 1 2 "Watch City Steampunk Festival Canceled Because Of Coronavirus". Waltham, MA Patch. 2020-03-31. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  16. 1 2 "Watch City Steampunk Festival 2021 Free ·Online Event".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ↑ "Facebook Event: Watch City Steampunk Festival 2022".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  18. ↑ Collings, Jesse. "Dust off your top hat: Watch City Steampunk Festival returns May 7". Wicked Local. Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  19. 1 2 "Letter To The Editor: Watch City Steampunk Festival Returns To Waltham". Waltham, MA Patch. 2022-05-10. Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  20. ↑ "www.watchcityfestival.com".
  21. ↑ Reiss, Jaclyn (May 12, 2012). "Steampunk festival in Waltham brings thousands to the city's center". Boston Herald. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
  22. ↑ Reiss, Jaclyn (May 11, 2013). "2013 Steampunk fest in Waltham slated to draw thousands this weekend". Boston Herald=accessdate=May 15, 2013.
  23. ↑ Whelan, Bill (May 5, 2016). "Steampunk to take over Waltham Common this weekend". waltham.wickedlocal.com. Waltham New Tribune.
  24. ↑ "PHOTOS: Watch City Steampunk Festival 2017". waltham.wickedlocal.com. May 15, 2017.
  25. ↑ Fisher, Jenna (May 11, 2018). "Watch City Steampunk Festival 2018: What To Know".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.