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GLT Datebook: Steampunk Event Is Full On Future Past

Cogs and Corsets

Downtown Bloomington is set to go steampunk with Cogs and Corsets: A Steampunk Happening, June 2 - 4.

Call it Victorian industrial.  Call it high tech history.  Call it an inspired mix of old and new.  Just stop calling it and check it out! According to two of the organizers of the upcoming Cogs and Corsets event, there's lots of ways to describe steampunk, but the best way to get to know it is to experience it for yourself.  

Credit Cathy Sutliff
The Twin Cities own Cathy Sutliff (l) poses with her sister in elaborate steampunk fashion.

Organizer Melanie Shellito has been a steampunk fan for years, describing it as an inspired movement of creativity and imagination. "It often has the backdrop of Victorian England or America's wild west, with modern technologies reimagined as elaborate works of art, fashion and mechanics."

"I really like the all-inclusive atmosphere," said fellow organizer Amy O'Neal. "Whether it's fashion, history or engineering, there's really something for everyone in steampunk. And the community itself is very open and welcoming to everyone, from newbies who maybe just want to come and check things out without dressing up to  the full-on steampunkers who create elaborate personas, and costumes and build gadgets.  So it's a really all-inclusive community that I really enjoy."

At the first ever Cogs and Corsets event, attendees can experience costume and hair workshops, an elegant tea, a steampunk soiree, demonstrations of bartitsu ( a kind of martial art), learn how to create a steampunk persona, plus see a Tesla coil demonstration (a TESLA COIL!) and more. Some events require tickets, but most are free.  The whole event is great for the whole family.

Here's where you can get more information about the event. 

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Reporter, content producer and former All Things Considered host, Laura Kennedy is a native of the Midwest who occasionally affects an English accent just for the heck of it. Related to two U.S. presidents, Kennedy appalled her family by going into show business.