Report from the Newcastle Maker Faire
Well, after a long and arduous journey through yesterday night, the SteamPunk Magazine crew have finally returned from the Maker Faire that took place at the Centre for Life in Newcastle last weekend as part of the Newcastle ScienceFest.
We took with us some special, pre-release copies of the new issue #7 (which is due out at the end of the month) as well as all of the back issues that we could cram into a vintage suitcase as we made our trip up to the Great North.
As could be expected, there were a whole host of made, built and hacked things on display, including numerous exhibits of electronics and digital crafts, but also including some far more steampunky affairs. There was a fire-breathing, remote-controlled horse that was seemingly cobbled together from scrap and found materials, the Newcastle Crafts Mafia decorating the whole of the city centre with guerilla knitting, a set of three very large (and very loud!) musical Tesla coils that were played the weekend through by members of the public, drunken robots, found, recycled and upcycled crafts and jewellery, and an interactive musical performance that was beautiful, breathtaking and utterly haunting.
Also in attendance were UK musical juggernauts Ghostfire, who played two sets to the enthusiastically confused people of Newcastle, and gave us the opportunity to waltz in the smallest space known to humanity.
In short: we met a whole host of wonderful people over the course of the weekend, had some wonderful discussions, and got to explain steampunk more times in the space of two days than we believed was possible.
We strongly encourage you to click through the photos in the gallery below for more information about what we got up to over this glorious weekend in a truly wonderful city.
If this weekend is anything to go by, then we will most assuredly be coming back again next year!
Hello Hello! I chatted to a couple of lovely ladies from the Steampunk Mag at Maker Faire. I was the one doing the Gocco screen printing display next to the NCL Craft Mafia.
I totally dig Maker Faire. The atmosphere is charged with all sorts of exciting and delightful energy.
It was lovely to meet you.
I think I shall now have a look at your magazine…
Cheers,
Cassandra
Hi Cassandra! I was one of those ladies! It was awesome to meet you. I shall definitely be in touch about some kind of how-to for the magazine if you’re still up for it. If you want to drop me a line at allegra[at]steampunkmagazine[dot]com then we can chat about it!
Yes, it was nice to meet you all at the faire, thanks again for the copy of #6 Steampunk Mag. Shame that we missed Ghostfire.
I’m chuffed to learn that this went so well and that a grand time was had by all. My only regret is that I couldn’t make it. 🙁
Well, if you will have children!
Honestly it was a real shame you couldn’t make it. You and I shall have to actually, you know, meet each other one of these days.