News from our partners: Shrewsbury steampunk spectacular on Saturday 23 March 2019

News from our partners Chantilly Grey 

We are delighted to again be hosting Shrewsbury Steampunk Spectacular on Saturday 23 March 2019.

This will be the most exciting festival offering fun and excitement for all to enjoy.

Our Steampunk events are immensely popular, appealing to families, couples the young and not so young. It really does capture the imagination of everyone.

It will be the most splendid and spectacular show, and is being eagerly anticipated amongst the Steampunk community and performers alike.

The event will focus around a Steampunk Market at St Mary’s Church, but lots of exciting attractions will be available throughout the whole of the town.

There will be a chance to visit Coleham Pumping Station in all its steam-filled splendour.

Charles Darwin will see visitors arrive to explore his former school and Steampunk- dressed librarians will offer tours of Shrewsbury Library.

A Burlesque workshop will be available at the Lion Hotel if anyone fancies joining the fabulous Madam Zurri Arrosa demonstrating the art of this exciting dance.

Other daytime entertainment will include performances from Charlie Draper, an accomplished Theremin musician, and dancing displays by Belly Fusion Dance Collective, Soluna and the League of Extreme Madness and Morris Side Ironmen and Severn Guilders.

Ichabod Steam will be entertaining guests outside St Mary’s in his Steampunk musical submarine!

Sheriff Ants Trenpeneur will be delighting us with music and song throughout the day, and guests can also take part in Teapot Racing and Parasol Duelling if they wish.

As dusk falls, a guided ghost tour is on offer and will start from The Square in Shrewsbury town centre.

On Saturday evening, The Adams Ball Room at the Lion Hotel will provide the perfect venue for a Steampunk Shindig.

We have a fabulous line up of the best in Steampunk music and entertainment. It is all going to be rather marvellous. Local acrobat Damian Senior will be performing, along with Lady Violet Hugh, Madam Zurri Arrosa, Victor and the Bully and Professor Elemental. The whole evening will be compered by the amazing Pip Bayley.

Shrewsbury is perfect for Steampunk.

Imagine a world without electricity! A world powered solely by steam and steeped in the novels of Jules Verne and H G Wells: think how creative the Victorians would have needed to be to live in such a way! The Steampunk community revels in this world, they love to create, invent and up-cycle in unimaginable ways.

They drink lots of tea and have been known to duel with the occasional digestive biscuit. Oh, and they also enjoy the occasional gin, while others have been known to drink the local brew, so do come along and join in.

They love to dress up in what can only be described as Victorian and Edwardian high fashion with the added influences of the American Wild West and ‘burlesque’, to name but a few, culminating in an amazing feast for the eyes.

Time travellers, Airship enthusiasts and many other fascinating and wonderful people will arrive from the four corners of the planet to our wonderful town and we simply cannot wait to invite, welcome and entertain them. We hope to see you there!