Steampunk expo returns at Craigdarroch

Canada’s biggest steampunk exposition returns to Victoria on September 24 and 25. Its trump card: Craigdarroch Castle.

The Victoria Steam Exposition (VSE), now in its second year, celebrates all things steampunk. It consists of vendors and artists hawking their wares, plus music, burlesque, talks from artists and authors, a Victorian combat demonstration (with canes and parasols), a children’s costume contest, and even a lesson in tying and untying a corset.

Steampunk presents an alternate history of the Victorian era, where advanced steam-powered gadgets and gizmos exist. It’s “a collision of history and imagination,” says VSE organizer Jordan Stratford. “Steampunk has been regarded as nostalgia for a time that never was.”

The first VSE, the first major steampunk event in Canada, was held last year at the Empress Hotel. This year, the expo has moved to Craigdarroch Castle, a historic house museum originally built in the 1890s.

The assistant manager of operations and development at Craigdarroch, Elisabeth Hazell, approached Stratford about holding VSE at the castle, and he jumped at the chance.

“The centerpiece is the venue itself,” says Stratford. “We get to have a private party in an 1890s castle.”

Hosting a steampunk party is a new venture for Craigdarroch Castle. For the past few years, it has been run as a traditional historic house museum. But Hazell wants to bring a new crowd to the castle.

“Typically we have tourists walking around with their shorts and T-shirts,” says Hazell. “For this we’re going to have top hats and crazy accessories.”

The VSE is bringing in some big steampunk names, including authors Phil and Kaja Foglio and San Francisco musician Jill Tracy. A plethora of vendors and artists will also attend, mostly from Victoria and Vancouver. But some ticket holders are coming from as far away as Florida, Newfoundland, and even the UK.

The expo is a chance to appreciate steampunk, and how it’s expressed in different art forms, as well as to learn from artists, vendors, and authors in an intimate setting.

“It’s a festive, theatrical, carnival atmosphere,” says Stratford. “This is not serious. This is tremendously silly.”

Go to victoriasteampunkexpo.com for more information.