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2024: Steampunk Year in Review

Jan 13, 2025

New steampunk events. A new social media platform. Unwelcome changes at Patreon. And “utter chaos” at a convention in Pennsylvania. These were some of our biggest news stories of 2024.

In future installments of our Year in Review, we’ll look at last year’s news in books, comics, music, movies, and TV. But first, the happenings in 2024 that didn’t fit neatly into those categories.

Wicked World’s Fair

Controversial event producer Jeff Mach found himself in a harsh spotlight following problems at Wicked World’s Fair, held Feb. 23-25 at the SureStay Plus hotel in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Mach billed the gathering as a “Steampunk/Polygenre Festival.”

Unhappy participants described the event as “utter chaos” and “complete mayhem,” citing lax security, overcrowded vendor spaces, and, in one case, ceiling tiles that crashed near a vendor’s table. Multiple vendors reported that they were shortchanged on spaces they had paid for. The sound and lighting crew hired for music performances left early because they hadn’t been paid.

Mach blamed some of the problems on Eventbrite, the online ticketing platform, which he used to handle sales of vendor spaces in addition to ticket sales. He said that Eventbrite had frozen his funds, leaving him unable to cover expenses or handle refund requests. Eventbrite refuted his claims.

On the last day of the event, angry vendors confronted Mach and some associates during a meeting that was captured on video. Clips from the meeting were widely circulated on TikTok and Facebook. One participant later formed a Facebook group called Disgruntled Wicked Vendors that grew to more than 100 members and remains active.

Mach later claimed that he had transferred ownership of the event to an associate named Dawn Marie, and said that she would handle refunds.

Dawn Marie denied that claim in a statement to The Steampunk Explorer.

Mach is best known as the former organizer of the Steampunk World’s Fair, which collapsed in 2018 following allegations that he had engaged in business and sexual misconduct.

Previous coverage: Inside Look: What Happened at Wicked World’s Fair?

Eventbrite Refutes Mach’s Claims About WWF Payouts, Hints at Possible ‘Actions’

Complaints of “Utter Chaos” and Unkept Promises at Pennsylvania Event

Wicked World’s Fair: Jeff Mach Responds to Complaints (Or At Least We Asked)

New U.S. Events

New steampunk events launched last year on both sides of the Atlantic. One notable launch was the River City Steampunk Expo, which took place from May 31 to June 2 in Louisville, Kentucky. It filled a gap left by the demise of the International Steampunk Symposium, which was held in Cincinnati for many years until 2023.

The new convention is led by steampunk author Geoffrey Mandragora. It will be back this year, March 14-16, but under a new name: Bourbon City Steam. Mandragora told us he made the change to avoid confusion with the Big River Steampunk Festival in Hannibal, Missouri.

Other new U.S. events included SteampTopia in Petaluma, California; Steampunk Stampede in McAlester, Oklahoma; Steampunk on the Bricks in Jackson, Michigan; Steampunk at Strathearn in Simi Valley, California; and Steamers and Dreamers in Scottsboro, Alabama.

Two U.S. events relaunched under new names. The Atlanta Steampunk Exposition rebranded as CONpossible to reflect an expanded focus that includes other aspects of alternate history and speculative fiction. It will return Feb. 7-9 with “Travel Beyond the Veil” as the theme.

The Freaky Mutant Weirdo Festival in Hackettstown, New Jersey, relaunched last year as Steampunk Alchemy Fest. The event was originally an indoor variety show, then transformed into an outdoor festival in 2022 and 2023. It will return June 6-8 to Vasa Park in Hackettstown.

Previous coverage: Postcards from Louisville

Photos: Steampunks in Wine Country

Photos: Steamers and Dreamers

New U.K. Events

Notable launches in the U.K. included the Isle of Wight Steampunk Festival in Ryde and Tenby Steampunk Festival in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Both received local media attention.

The Tenby gathering, held in March, “looks set to become a fixture on the seaside town’s calendar,” The Tenby Observer reported shortly after the 2024 festival. It will be back March 28-30.

The Isle of Wight festival, held in September, featured an impressive list of performers that included Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer, Victor and the Bully, and Victor Sierra. It drew approximately 2,000 attendees, the Isle of Wight County Press reported. It, too, will be back, on the weekend of Sept. 26-28.

Fuming Over Hotel Prices

Many fan events rely on hotels as venues and/or to provide lodging for out-of-town visitors. High prices for these accommodations became issues last year for some gatherings.

John Naylor, organizer of the Asylum Steampunk Festival in Lincoln, U.K., briefly threatened to take the event to another city due to inflated prices for hotel rooms and Airbnb rentals.

In a post on Facebook, Naylor stated that the price hikes likely resulted from “revenue maximization software used by many hotels, booking sites and Airbnb rather than any deliberate hotel policy.”

The Asylum festival is the world’s largest steampunk gathering, and with so many people in search of lodging, the algorithms “are rubbing their digital hands in avarice,” he wrote.

Later, he announced that the festival would return to Lincoln in 2025 after it secured 1,000 rooms at prices capped between £75 and £99 per night. In addition, the festival arranged for a low-cost campsite that can accommodate tents and motorhomes.

The nonprofit organization behind Comic-Con International in San Diego also raised concerns about hotel pricing, Forbes reported. David Glanzer, an officer for the group, suggested that the event could leave the city after the current contract expires in 2025.

As with many conventions, Comic-Con arranges with local hotels to provide room blocks at discounted rates. But Glanzer told Forbes that some hotels were offering fewer rooms in the blocks and then charging exorbitant rates for non-block rooms—up to three times more than the regular season rates.

The Gaslight Steampunk Expo, a long-running and well-attended event in San Diego, is currently on hiatus due to “astronomical price hikes” for convention space, event director Anastasia Hunter said in a Facebook post. It was last held in 2022.

Related coverage: Asylum festival to stay in Lincoln despite anger over hotel price hikes (Lincolnshire Live)

Comic-Con May Leave San Diego Over Hotel Price Gouging, Say Organizers (Forbes)

New U.K. Website

In March, U.K. steampunk fan Roy Sinclair launched SteampunkHub.uk, aiming to make it easier for folks to get information about upcoming events without poring through lots of Facebook pages.

Sinclair, a professional web developer, said he got hooked on the genre after visiting the Asylum Steampunk Festival in 2023.

The site displays events in map, calendar, and list formats. It also has listings of steampunk clubs and performers. It’s designed so that organizers can submit events and club listings on their own.

U.K. steampunk fans should also check out SteamPaper, a monthly e-newsletter from Ilya Rostov that focuses on event news. Of course, The Steampunk Explorer also includes U.K. events in our steampunk calendar and regional calendars.

Steampunks on Bluesky

Facebook has long been the dominant social media platform among steampunk fans, but many steampunk authors and other creators once had a presence on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. That changed dramatically last year, as many X users abandoned the platform in favor of Bluesky, a Twitter alternative that launched to the public in February.

The exodus began shortly after tech billionaire Elon Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022 and re-named it as X. But the departures picked up steam after the 2024 Presidential election, as users were angered by controversial changes to the platform and Musk’s use of X to promote the candidacy of Donald Trump.

In September, Bluesky had 9 million users, but as we write it has more than 27 million, with most of the growth taking place in the month following the election.

Bluesky’s attractions include its lack of advertising, its highly customizable user experience, and its powerful moderation and blocking features. Bluesky Starter Packs help new users get up to speed by listing accounts related to specific interests. We’ve created three—Steampunk Authors on Bluesky, Steampunk Artists, etc. on Bluesky, and Steampunk Adjacent—and you can find thousands more at Bluesky Directory.

Some “TwitterQuitters,” as actor Mark Hammill describes them, have also moved to Mastodon, a self-hosted open-source network, or Threads, a Twitter alternative from Meta Platforms (parent company of Facebook and Instagram). But Bluesky appears to be the biggest beneficiary of the exodus.

You can find The Steampunk Explorer at https://bsky.app/profile/steampunk-explorer.com.

Previous coverage: Steampunks Are Taking to Bluesky – Here’s Why You Should Give It a Spin

A Steampunk’s Guide to Bluesky

Bluesky Surges as Steampunk Creators Abandon X/Twitter

Unwelcome Changes at Patreon

Many steampunk creators—including The Steampunk Explorer—rely on Patreon to raise funds from their followers. However, changes instituted in November created complications for many users and compelled at least one prominent artist to leave the platform.

The changes were spurred by Apple, which now requires the Patreon iOS app to use Apple’s in-app payment system. This means that Apple gets a 30 percent commission on new Patreon subscriptions purchased through the app. For example, if you use the iOS app to support The Steampunk Explorer for $1 per month, you will be charged $1.30 per month, with the extra 30 cents going to Apple.

You can get around this by signing up through the Patreon website or on an Android device. We’ve always encouraged potential supporters to use the website, and this is one more reason why.

But that wasn’t the only change. Due to requirements imposed by Apple, Patreon said it would move all creators to subscription billing, meaning they can no longer use the per-creation billing option.

One artist who used this option was singer-songwriter Erica Mulkey (aka Unwoman), who charged fans $1 per song. Due to the changes, she announced in August that she would be leaving Patreon, effective in January, after 10 years on the platform. She now encourages fans to subscribe to her music on Bandcamp, which costs US$20 per year.

The Steampunk Explorer uses subscription billing and remains on Patreon.

Previous coverage: Patreon Creators Stew as Apple Imposes App Tax and Billing Changes

New Look for The Steampunk Explorer

We had news of our own as we launched a major redesign of the website on Dec. 30. It features a new color scheme and new sections organized around major steampunk interests. We also redesigned the article pages for maximum readability, with narrower columns and larger body text.

The redesign was necessitated by the pending demise of our previous content management system, Drupal 7. We rebuilt the site in a similar CMS known as Backdrop.

Previous coverage: A New Look for The Steampunk Explorer

With much of our efforts focused on the new design, we produced only three episodes of our video series, The World of Steampunk.

Episode 10: Scenes from Clockwork Alchemy, Q&As with Evan Narlinger (Steampunk Adventurers Weekend) and Justin Katz (The Edwardian Ball). Watch it on YouTube | Vimeo.

Episode 11: Scenes from the Obtainium Cup Contraptors Rally, Q&A with Ofeibea Loveless (Airship Ashanti). Watch it on YouTube | Vimeo.

Episode 12: Scenes from the Key City Steampunk Convention and Maker Faire Bay Area. Watch it on YouTube | Vimeo.

The Year That Never Was

Most of the year, we report news from Earth One—the reality that steampunk fans share with ordinary civilians. But occasionally we report from a Year That Never Was. By odd coincidence, this always seems to happen on April 1.

The biggest news from this parallel 2024 was the launch of Major League Tea Dueling. As we reported, it will begin play this year in North America under the watchful eyes of commissioners Madame Askew and The Grand Arbiter. The league will initially consist of 24 teams competing in three divisions.

The league has already begun advertising. “Soon, the top players in this thrilling sport will take the largest stage of their lives,” proclaims one radio spot. “Who will have the cleanest dunks, the steadiest grip, and the willpower to prevail? Major League Tea Dueling. Three divisions. 24 teams. One biscuit left standing.”

Previous coverage: Exclusive: Major League Tea Dueling to Begin Play in 24 Cities

More Year in Review coverage: The Year in Pictures

Keep up with the latest steampunk news!

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