Gears, goggles and gizmos

Approximately 100 volunteers got the gears turning this weekend at the 2nd annual Springfield Steampunk Festival, which drew revelers of all ages in futuristic fashion and steam-and-clockwork accessories to the second annual event and fundraiser.

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2016-09-26 / Front Page Gears, goggles and gizmos 2nd annual Steampunk Festival brings new features By TORY JONES BONENFANT toryb@eagletimes.com Families and children took part in the 2016 Steampunk Festival. Outdoors at the Hartness House Inn on Saturday were, in front from left, Wyatt Wunderlich, 5, Camden Brock, 3, and Nikiah Brock, 2, with parents, in second row from left, Ashley and Zack Brock of Hillsborough, New Hampshire and Marcy Wunderlich of Jeffersonville, Vermont. — TORY JONES BONENFANT Families and children took part in the 2016 Steampunk Festival. Outdoors at the Hartness House Inn on Saturday were, in front from left, Wyatt Wunderlich, 5, Camden Brock, 3, and Nikiah Brock, 2, with parents, in second row from left, Ashley and Zack Brock of Hillsborough, New Hampshire and Marcy Wunderlich of Jeffersonville, Vermont. — TORY JONES BONENFANT SPRINGFIELD — Approximately 100 volunteers got the gears turning this weekend at the 2nd annual Springfield Steampunk Festival, which drew revelers of all ages in futuristic fashion and steam-and-clockwork accessories to the second annual event and fundraiser. Drivers ran shuttle buses nonstop on Saturday afternoon, Sept. 24, as visitors of all ages bustled about the festival at the Hartness House Inn. This year’s festival, which ran from Friday, Sept. 23 through Sunday, Sept. 25, brought approximately 500 registered attendees, according to organizer Sabrina Smith. “It’s cool,” said Amelia Schrager, who traveled with her father, Jim Schrager from Bristol, Connecticut to attend the festival for the first time this year. The duo were in attire they put together using pieces from thrift shops, creating a vintage steampunk look complete with hats and goggles, handlebar moustache, leather and lace, a mechanical arm cover, and a light-up jetpack created from a vintage suitcase. Both said they would like to return to the festival next year. Steampunk takes much of its inspiration from writers of the Victorian age, including Jules Verne and H.G. Wells and the fictional worlds they created. “The fantasy worlds created by these authors combined with our present day knowledge of science and technology drives Steampunk imagination. A futuristic Victorian Age where technology is powered by steam or gears (similar to a watch that runs on gears) rather than electricity,” organizers explain on the Steampunk Festival’s website. Matt Rockwell, who traveled to the festival from North Clarendon, Vermont, said that it is his second year attending. “I’ve seen a lot of great outfits today,” he said. One that particularly caught his eye was a woman dressed in Victorian attire with an entire hot-air balloon setup included in her costume, and with her baby in the basket of the hot-air balloon. Rockwell said he created his own “slime test-tube” futuristic weapon, with the help of his nephew. He also does his own leatherwork, and created a mechanical clockwork-style glove and arm cover. Couples, families with children, and senior citizens decked out in their finest steampunk attire moved about the venue on Saturday, taking part in numerous activities including a game room, a photo booth hosted by Eric Fitzgerald Photography, absinthe tasting, a fashion show, tea dueling and teapot racing, a Tarot card reader at a 19th Century Divination booth, and steampunk workshops inside the Hartness House Inn and on its grounds. Volunteers also offered crafts and activities for children at the festival. Fairytale cyber / steampunk band Psyche Corporation, with ballads such as “a song about a girl named Antoinette, made of clockwork and flowers,” and other performers drew an audience Saturday afternoon and throughout the weekend. Steampunk-era author and chocolatier Nikki Woolfolk and her partner Nate Nissen, both of Connecticut, offered copies of her book along with pieces of freshly-made chocolates in the house’s parlor. “This is great,” said Joanne Gay of North Walpole, who was volunteering on Saturday with Roberta Streeter of Bellows Falls. Volunteers who put in four hours could earn a pass to the festival. Stellafane, a Springfield telescope-makers’ club, hosted tours of the underground observatory and former office space of inventor, mechanical engineer, and former Vermont governor James Hartness during the festival. The festival also offered sessions on the industrial history of the town of Springfield. “I’m a huge history buff about industrial, mills and astronomy, and the history of Hartness House and what’s been created here,“ said Yvonne Prince, who traveled from Somersworth, New Hampshire and was helping a friend attend a vendor booth. Prince, who is originally from Keene, said she loves the history of the house and of the area, and was amazed when she read about all the mechanical inventions and the telescope-making history of the Springfield area. Outdoors, vendors offered Victorian and steampunk clothing, accessories, jewelry, hats and other attire, and food vendors sold old-fashioned lemonade and such goods as hot samosas and squares of Braggot Cake, a caramel and sea salt brownie. While the final total has not yet been tallied, the festival’s organizing team plans to donate net proceeds from this year’s Steampunk Festival to the Springfield Humane Society.