Asylum 2017

Warning- long post, lots of pics!

For 9 years, hordes of steam punks from all over the world have descended on Lincoln and much silliness hath ensued.  We started steam punking just under 2 years ago, and have now attended 2 Asylum weekends.  It’s amazing!  Literally thousands of people [not all steam punks, some muggles too, or what we call the ‘steam-curious’]  We met up with old friends, and made new ones.

Last year was a bit hectic [for us] we booked ourselves into too many events, and felt rushed.  Then I crocked my ankle on the ubiquitous cobbles, and we came home a day earlier than planned!  This year, I opted out of all evening entertainments, and we just ambled around, rubber-necking like crazy. There were vintage shuttle buses running between the two main sites, which saved trudging in the blistering heat.

Despite all my outfit planning I still found myself feeling distinctly under-dressed- there are so many truly amazing, professional quality costumes everywhere you look.  Gadgets and gizmos abound, and it’s quite dazzling.

The weekend was also the hottest of the year, and with the castle grounds turned into a suntrap, patches of shade were very important to all.  Parasols were essential kit, and the cathedral cloisters were a very welcome source of cool, calm shade.

Market stalls are everywhere to tempt and destroy your bank balance!  We were quite restrained, Dawn bought some shiny goggles, I got new flip-up sunglasses, and I indulged in this piece of insanely glittery leather and a couple of rather nice leather belts [essential after snapping the only one I’d taken with me on day one!]

In the Great Exhibition tent, we met the lovely Jade Sarson, a very talented graphic artist from Lincoln.  We admired her wares [no fnar intended, lol] and bought  a copy of her risqué graphic novel,  ‘For the Love of God, Marie!’ Dawn found that every copy opened to a particularly saucy page, and suspected that Jade had done some judicious prep on the books…is she right Jade?

Highly recommended by the way, unless you find sexy drawings upsetting!  We couldn’t put it down, and will be seeking out more of Jade’s work pretty sharpish.

THEN Dawn spotted a notice where Jade offers to draw your portrait in a Manga style.  Okey pokey, sold!  She took our picture, and we wandered off for an hour or two, then returned to pick it up.  We’re chuffed to bits!  I think she’s been too generous in making me look rather youthful, but Dawn looks amazing!  [She’s so bloody photogenic, damn it]

I’ve already shown a couple of my pics in the CoBloWriMo ‘ensemble’ post, but here are some more of them.  We took about 150, and have gathered more taken by other people, but this should give a flavour.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is not the original, but a marvellous steam punk copy which apparently took 4 years to build completely from scratch.  Gorgeous.

There are always loads of steam punk superheroes…

….villains….

…and scary creatures!

Musical acts [this is ‘Feline & Strange’]

There were some very silly races, this is the ‘Wacky Races’ event.  Very silly, great fun!

Which was followed by a version for mobility scooters and wheelchairs

And now to start thinking about next year:  the cathedral itself is inspiring some ideas.  I’ll be writing more on that in due course.

MOST of these pictures are my own, a few are shamelessly scavenged from shared Facebook albums.  If by chance anyone objects to any of those used, just let me know and I will remove them.