Full Steam Ahead

by P Potocki

February 12, 2008
in Feature, Monthly

The steampunk movement has been around for a couple decades now, but in recent years has gained momentum and popularity, including at local festivals and events.

Picture yourself in a world first envisioned by the likes of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne: A science fiction-like subculture, often referred to as “steampunk,” where turn-of-the-19th-century, retro-futuristic mechanisms abound among fanciful corsets, leather and other industrial-age fashions.

Largely inspired by Burning Man culture, the steampunk movement has been around for a couple decades now, but in recent years has gained momentum and popularity, including at North Bay festivals and events celebrating creativity, invention and freedom of expression. It’s inspired a genre where local and more widespread inventors, vendors, artists and performers gather to enjoy their creations and each other. So why not check out one of these local festivals this summer and see what the fuss is all about? And don’t be afraid to dress up: It’s a big part of the fun.

Dr. E.P. Kitty’s Wunderkammer

Fans of the Handcar Regatta (aka The Great West End and Railroad Square Handcar Regatta and Exposition of Mechanical and Artistic Wonders) will be thrilled to know that one of the area’s favorite events is being resurrected as Dr. E.P. Kitty’s Wunderkammer, featuring The Great Sonoma County Handcar Races, on August 25 this year. Ty Jones, managing producer and partner of the Artistic Wonder Society and a co-founder of the original event, which ran for four years with increasing popularity until 2011, has teamed up with Kathy Kingman and Mark Solum of event services and security company Praetorian USA, for what could be the first and final year of Wunderkammer in its current location at Santa Rosa’s historical Railroad Square (SMART will likely be building a passenger platform at the site next year). Jones got the ball rolling for the remake of the popular Regatta and is planning to make this year’s event even better than those of the past.

“Jones is the man with the plan,” says Kingman, and his creativity appears to be boundless. Jones’ partnership with Praetorian seems a logical choice, since the Petaluma-based company has a long history of producing local historical events including the annual Northern California Pirate Festival in Vallejo and the Dickens Christmas Theatrical Faire in Daly City. Much of what the producers are planning for Wunderkammer involves re-envisioning the Handcar Regatta while still including many of the same aspects that people enjoyed so much with the former event. “The handcar races are so much fun that they had to be an integral part of the show,” says Kingman. Envision old black-and-white movies, where actors vigorously pumped handcars to get down the railroad tracks, and you’ll have an idea of the humor-filled vein that permeates the day.

For the races that are interspersed during the day-long festival, two giant, custom-made handcars are placed on parallel railroad tracks and creativity runs rampant as cars are set into motion in crazy ways, including jumping, pumping, running, pedaling and flapping—and everything must run solely on human power. Only 20 cars are accepted into the race, which whittles the field through elimination rounds until only two competitors remain for the grand finale. This year, veteran racers and handcar builders are creating a handbook that will assist new competitors with how to build their structures.

Although there isn’t one set theme, there’s a 1920s circus air about the event, though many of the costumes worn by attendees are fueled by a more modern diesel/steampunk feel. Dr. E.P. Kitty, a fictional late 18th Century character who oversaw proceedings at the Regatta each year, returns to run the show, but the producers wanted to make sure the event isn’t set in any specific time period like the Renaissance or Dickens Faires. “At the Wunderkammer Festival, it’s anything goes. There are no hard-and-fast rules. You can make up any character you want because it’s a fun, fantasy world,” says Kingman.

Food vendors are all local, many from the Santa Rosa area. Other types of vendors come from a wider regional swath and are artisans rather than resell vendors (such a custom hatter who’ll be creating felt hats from scratch and jewelers who offer unique wares). “Reuse and recycle” is another relevant event theme that will be emphasized in the marketplace. This year’s event will be extra family-friendly, with a specially designed children’s entertainment area that will include rides and a jump house among other things.

The Hootenanny Stage will feature local artists that have been curated and scheduled by Josh Windmiller, who will also be bringing music to Rivertown Revival (more on that festival later in this article). He’s promised an amazing lineup of music geared toward the tastes of the diverse crowd that Wunderkammer is sure to attract. The Vaudeville Stage will feature circus acts and have an early-century feel and there will be street entertainment such as stilt walkers and sword swallowers, as well as barker stages where crowds waiting to enter the venue will be entertained. This year’s event is likely to have as many as 10,000 attendees (when Wunderkammer’s Facebook page went live, it had about 800 likes within hours).

This year, a limited amount of VIP passes will let patrons access a specially catered area that has the best views of the handcar races. A more affordable, general admission ticket will be available for $10 at the gate or for a discounted price if purchased online through the Wunderkammer website. Children 11 and under will be admitted free of charge.

Lagunitas Beer Circus

In 2009, Lagunitas Brewing Company founder Tony Magee had a vision of throwing a crazy, circus-style party that would serve as a fund-raiser to benefit a local nonprofit. At the time, Jim Jacobs, Lagunitas’ director of sponsorship and events, was already volunteering with the Petaluma Music Festival, which raises money to provide music programs in Petaluma schools. Since the Lagunitas brewery is located in Petaluma, Magee decided the festival would be a perfect beneficiary for the Lagunitas Beer Circus.

Today, Petaluma Music Festival is the beneficiary of the Beer Circus, and the more money raised means additional music opportunities in the city’s schools. Though the money raised goes to helping children and youth, the Beer Circus is a strictly 21-and-over event filled with wild, crazy burlesque circus acts, aerialists, sword swallowers, stilt walkers—and lots of beer. And though not a strictly steampunk theme abounds, you’ll still find revelers dressed in that fashion as well as human-powered contraptions and sideshows.

Close to 20 breweries are invited to participate every year, with attendance structured similar to a wine tasting event; a ticket purchase includes a set number of beer samples, with more available for an additional fee. This provides each craft brewery with an opportunity to introduce their products to people with sophisticated beer palates, who could be future customers. Most of the breweries invited are small, and Lagunitas wants them to connect with potential patrons as a way to shepherd and support the brewers in their efforts to promote craft beer.

All of the food vendors are local and connected to Lagunitas in one way or another. The Lagunitas community includes not only beer fans but foodies (they have their own restaurant next door to the brewery) and like-minded civic folks who want to see their city flourish.

“They all seem to be drawn like magnets to these sorts of events,” says Jacobs, who adds it’s not unusual to see the same people at the various fund-raisers that take place in Petaluma. Not only is there an overlap with people from the music festival, but many of the same people also volunteer for Rivertown Revival.

The circus takes place at the brewery and covers the entire parking area and the new “mini-amphitheater,” called “Live at Lagunitas.” It was created to let Lagunitas sponsor more fund-raisers but also so it could host musical acts at the brewery. Giving away free concert tickets is one way it plans to show Petaluma citizens that they’re appreciated. Live at Lagunitas is the venue for more than a dozen shows per year, most of them free. Last year, headliners included Emmylou Harris, Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers, Dave Alvin and Dumpstafunk.

This year’s event (May 19) saw 2,500 people swarm the Beer Circus once again. “The event helps raise funds and awareness for music-in-schools programs, lets people engage in community building and have a good time,” says Jacobs.

Rivertown Revival

The Rivertown Revival crew boasts that its diverse team of community-loving folks is the key to the festival’s success. July 20 marks the fourth year of this annual event at Steamer Landing Park on the Petaluma waterfront. It all started when Clementine Eco Events owners Kelin Castleberry Backman, Vanessa Hauswald and Elizabeth Howland wanted to produce a “green” event in their town that would bring attention to the Petaluma River with its natural beauty and rich history. Howland, who also formerly served as executive director of Friends of the Petaluma River, believes “community events and celebrations bring people together to strengthen their ties, work out their differences and fulfill their dreams.”

Last year, the festival raised $10,000, which goes back into The Friends of the Petaluma River projects, including turning a 100-year-old barn into the David Yearsley River Heritage Center, which will engage people in outdoor activities to save and conserve the river. One draw for the festival is that organizers have managed to keep the family-friendly event reasonably priced: $5 for admission, $5 for a beer…and only $5 to get married by an ordained minister (you have to provide the marriage license, though, if you a want a real wedding, not just a renewal of vows).

A staff of 30 labors alongside approximately 200 volunteers for hundreds of hours to put on Rivertown Revival. This year, 130 musicians, most of them local, will play at different locations throughout the festival. There will also be entertainment programs happening in six different areas, including a stage called “Kidding Around,” where performances throughout the day will be geared especially toward children and families.

The Revival tent will have sideshows and carnival acts, and the Front Porch Stage at the back of the Peninsula will feature various acts. The main stage will be at the old barn and, of course, there will be river activities including art boat races, a trapeze act in the water and a steam motor paddle wheel boat. This year, the Rivertown Revival crew has teamed up with Windmiller and The North Bay Hootenanny, an organization renowned for its continuous efforts to promote local music. These are the folks responsible for the music at the former Handcar Regatta, Levi’s Gran Fondo and the “This Train” Woody Guthrie Folk Fair, just to name as few. The Hootenanny received a Boho Award last year for the many hours it’s put into developing the local music scene. Joining forces with Miller will help Rivertown Revival bring its event to the next level by providing new musical experiences and a fresh roster of performers.

The fun starts on arrival. As people are buying their tickets, they’ll be able to view acts on the Channel stage right near the festival’s entrance. One of the big attractions of the event is The Hitching Post at Wedding Hill. Most years, about 30 couples tie the knot. While some people are actually getting married, others have commitment ceremonies or take this unique opportunity to renew their vows. Most of the 7,000 to 10,000 attendees wear costumes, but people are open to interpretation, donning anything from turn-of-the-century outfits to “barnival” attire (imagine a circus in an Old West barn). It’s not unusual to see people dressed up like tightrope walkers or wearing corsets. For those needing ideas, a quick look at Rivertown Revival’s Facebook page offers loads of inspiration.

Clementine Eco Events really wanted to bring attention to Petaluma’s great food and shops, so local sponsors like Lagunitas Brewing Company, Camelbak, Outwest Garage and Whole Foods Market are important, as are the in-kind donations local restaurants make to feed volunteers, and Young Nomad Brand’s incredible creative contributions to help make the event a success. “It feels like a hometown party—it’s mayhem that’s fun for the entire family,” says Backman.

The Edwardian Ball

Justin Katz’s band, Rosin Coven, was hosting a sunset martini party in the desert, circa 1999, when attendees discovered one of the guests had left an Edward Gorey book on the bar. Many of the guests shared an admiration for the author and illustrator’s works and thought it might be fun to hold a party in his honor. The then-proprietor of San Francisco’s Cat Club offered to host the event—and the Edwardian Ball was born.

The two-day extravaganza, with a ball and other events, is both elegant and whimsical. It’s an immersive world where turn-of-the-century meets world-to-be through theater, circus, live music, ballroom dancing, parlour games, steam machinery, aerial performances, obscure props, period technology, games and fashion shows.

“Though the period reference is in the title, the represented theme truly spans genres and cultures well beyond the Edwardian era. This fusion of the creative adult community is what makes San Francisco so special, by nature, and there’s no better display of this cross-pollination than the Edwardian Ball,” says Mike Gaines, one of its co-producers. Gaines and his wife, Shannon, are founders of the Vau de Vire Society and have been involved with the event since 2005.

Every year, the producers bring a Gorey story to life on stage with original music, theatrical choreography and narration. Literary fans don goth gear or elegant ball gowns and waltz their way around a dance floor, with a backdrop of high-flying trapeze and steam-powered machines amidst absinthe breaks. Friday night is the Edwardian World’s Faire, which is a little more rambunctious than Saturday’s ball and features a tea parlor and Barbary-themed midway games, bicycle-powered carnival rides, circus sideshows, burlesque, performances by the Vau de Vire Society and Edwardian DJs.

The Edwardian Ball always takes place on the second evening of the festival, always on the third weekend in January. Since 2009, it’s taken place at San Francisco’s Regency Ballroom. It’s a perfect fit, since not only was the venue built during the Edwardian Era (in 1909), but also because of its multiple floors, which allow for a wide range of installation, performance and interaction. The Edwardian Ball differs from other festivals mostly due to its lack of rules. “Our only rule is to show up—really show up—and be a part of the event,” says Katz. He emphasizes that there’s no right way to dress, only that it’s hoped guests will step out of ordinary life in some manner that feels good to them and enter the fantastical world of the ball’s creators.

According to Katz, some of the most memorable costumes included a woman who dressed up as one of the characters from Gorey’s book Gashlycrumb Tinies. A quote from the book reads, “W is for Winnie, embedded in ice” and a woman encased herself in a frozen block that she wore about the ball. There was also a man who had a fishbowl on his head, complete with live fish swimming around, and a couple where the man was dressed as an antique diver and the woman was encircled by a giant squid and wore a mast ship on her head.

New performers join the fun every year, but there are also the core groups that can be counted on to return. Rosin Coven and Vau de Vire Society have enjoyed performing with longtime favorites including Jill Tracy, their “Belle of the Ball,” and Dark Garden Corsetry with an ensemble that presents a Gorey-inspired corset fashion show. The producers also like to mix things up by choosing new performers from a variety of genres that include circus troupes, gentlemen rhymers, dancers, snake charmers and sideshow performers.

With 3,500 people attending the most recent event in San Francisco and another 1,200 participants in Los Angeles (the same group produces an Edwardian Ball there), the event continues to grow in energy, ideas and participation. Ball goers have come from as far away as Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia with many people considering the Edwardian Ball to be the best costume festival in the world.

Willits Kinetic Carnivale

The Willits Kinetic Carnivale was inaugurated by the Mendocino County Museum to raise funds for museum exhibits and educational programs, while at the same time making history fun and encouraging people to visit Willits. The event takes place on the same weekend as (and is coordinated with) the Annual Steam-Up hosted by Roots of Motive Power, an organization co-located with the Mendocino County Museum that’s dedicated to the restoration and recollection of steam locomotives, equipment and logging history in Mendocino County. The downhome Steam-Up affair lasted one-and-a-half days and consisted of steaming up train engines, cranes, tractors, steam donkeys and other stationary equipment, as well as displaying some free-standing engines that were brought in by members of a club specializing in small engines. The event was followed by a barbecue that hosted anywhere from 300 to 500 people. It attracted mostly local people but was nonetheless a big event for the small town.

In 2012, the Mendocino County Museum looked into adding hand car races to Roots’ Annual Steam-Up weekend and started with a working title of “Railroad Days.” The museum assembled an energetic group of community members and the concept took off from there, with a two-day fair and a Grand Ball in addition to handcar races.Almost 1,000 people participated in each of the two days of activities.

“The young people involved were enormously creative,” says Alison Glassey, director of the Mendocino County Museum, explaining that what started out as a small addition to an already popular event quickly became a large festival. This year, its second, will include a music and crafts fair in Recreation Grove Park and the continued tradition of a Grand Ball on Saturday night in the Engine House (the 600 tickets available sold out last year). New this year to kick off the event on Friday evening will be a light parade featuring kinetic-powered vehicles. Handcar races will take place on both Saturday and Sunday. The Willits Airport is also joining in the festivities with a Kinetic Fly-In on Sunday, and Roots of Motive Power will steam up its lovingly restored collection of trains and equipment all weekend.

“Sometimes it’s better not to know what you’re getting yourself into,” says Glassey with a laugh. “The Willits community has rallied around this event.”

Glassey already knows attendance will be up this year. For the ball last year, about half of the attendees were seriously costumed and many of those who didn’t dress up said they would this year. “With the steampunk theme, it’s what you make of it. Part of that is being inventive and creative with your wardrobe. It doesn’t require a huge expenditure of funds—we’re very egalitarian in style here,” says Glassey.

Glassey believes having the Willits Kinetic Carnivale outside in a beautiful park adds to the allure, along with the fact that there’s real steam to work with. Hosting the ball in a real engine house also adds a layer of authenticity and interest to the event that other venues can’t offer.

There will be music and local vendors on-hand for food and crafts. A place called “The Whimsy Circus” will provide activities and games for kids and adults and Dr. Solar will be sharing information on solar energy. A Discoverers’ Club will feature workshops on a variety of fascinating topics such as the origins of steam power, Victorian etiquette, and other historical curiosities. Several stages will feature a variety of acts, including acrobats and other circus-like performances.

The Skunk Train, which connects Willits and Fort Bragg on the California Western Railroad, is showcasing its historic steam engine number 45, and there will be awards for prettiest, fastest, slowest and most intriguing handcars, along with races throughout the day on the tracks in front of the Skunk Train Depot, which is on the same street as the museum, park and engine house.Last year’s cars included a gossamer dragon made from fabric, one that had a fan in the back and was pedal-powered, and one made by local youth. Even more entries are expected for this year’s competitions.

Steampunk has been described as “Sherlock Holmes meets the Wild, Wild, West, with a dash of Inspector Gadget.” It’s a genre of sci-fi trappings steeped in 19th century fashion and mechanization. Last year at Paris Fashion Week, some top designers featured runway styles with echoes of steampunk flair. But you don’t have to go all the way to Europe to get a peek at fashion forward thinkers. Enter the world of fantasy and the fantastical right here in the North Bay by attending—as a casual observer or a full-bodied participant—one or more of these festivals. Either way, you’ll be supporting local philanthropic endeavors and business ventures while enjoying an event that’s sure to be entertaining.