Norfolk Steampunk UK

About us.

Norfolk Steampunk is a socially active group of Steampunk enthusiasts who meet regularly at events around East Anglia and the UK. Apart from maintaining friendships and forging new friendships, our objective is to cultivate an interest in Steampunk, across all age groups, and to raise awareness of the genre within the county by staging events and social gatherings throughout the year. We also get together once a month for a chit chat and a social drink. Children, or coglings, as we call them, are also welcome.

The Steampunk maxim is:
"Be Splendid"

So what is Steampunk?

Steampunk is a subculture that draws its inspiration from the works of Victorian science fiction writers like Jules Verne and H. G. Wells by attempting to recreate the future as the Victorians may have imaged it to be.

As a culture, steampunks are very sociable, staging and attending events all around the country.

Steampunks aspire to the maxim, "Be Splendid" by adopting neo-victorian clothing, by creating splendid artifacts of wood, brass and copper, steam and clockwork, and by their attitude to others. Part of the philosophy of steampunks is to recycle, repurpose or adapt things that they find, be it clothing, clocks, brass or copper or whatever their imagination can conjure up.

Imagine a world where the most recent technology is steam and the knowledge of electricity is not yet commonplace. Steam and clockwork is how we get along in this exciting industrial age of Victorian development.

(Just for the record, there is also a sub-culture call Dieselpunk, but that is a separate thing altogether.)

Why the name Steampunk?

Science fiction author K.W. Jeter created the term steampunk in 1987 to describe a style of fantasy fiction that featured Victorian technology, especially technology powered by steam.

Steam: Steam is the most powerful form of manmade power known to the Victorians.

Punk: Punk is another word for rebel and steampunks are rebels. But steampunks are rebels in a good way. We rebel against the throw away society by recycling, adapting and repurposing the things that we find into new and exciting artifacts. This is why we love twenty-first century charity shops.

What do we do? We have fun!

The name of the game is to have fun, look splendid and be splendid to others. To that cause, we have a number of steampunk entertainers, some silly games such as tea duelling, teapot racing and parasol duelling and lots of fun events throughout the year. Becoming a steampunker, will introduce you to a very friendly, social and supportive community of members, and will give you an opportunity to develop your creativity and get you out of the house.

Photo: Norfolk Steampunk at the Bressteam Event, at Bressingham Steam Museum.

Steampunk Events:

By attending and organising various events throughout the year, we support a number of industrial museums and steam train preservation societies. As steampunks are also travellers in time, this means that we are not adverse to attending the annual 'Steampunks in Space' event at the Leicester Space Centre each November. Lincoln is the biggest event in the UK, which is held every August bank holiday. A truly amazing and awe inspiring event with thousands of steampunks in attendance. We also occasionally organise smaller random steampunk invasions of local towns and cities, visiting various charity shops to see what we can repurpose, reuse or adapt into our steampunk culture. There are many crafters who attend the organised events, who specialise in creating amazing Victorian-esque steampunk costume ensembles, which can be accessorised with handmade jewelry, trinkets, steampunk hats and leather crafts. There is no shortage of crafting opportunities or crafters to buy from. There are also crafters of steampunk ornaments, lamps and weapons of all sizes. Their imagination is their only limitation.

Our Monthly Meetings

As well as organising events and attending and supporting events organised by other steampunk groups, Norfolk Steampunk also hold our own monthly informal meetings, where we gather socially, details of which can be found on the Local Events page of this website and our Facebook Group page if you become a member. Membership is free and is done through our Facebook Group page. If you are interested in becoming a member, you can find us at:

www.facebook.com/groups/NorfolkSteampunk

Costume Themes

There are almost as many costume themes as there are costumes. Some of the most popular themes are pirate, dinosaur hunter, military uniform, Scotsmen in their kilts, naval captain, adventurer, aeronautical airship pilot, the perfect lady and gentleman, even Victorian bathing costume. Most steampunks will have many costumes to choose from. I'm afraid it is quite addictive once you've bought/made your first costume. As steampunk is Victorian Sci-Fi, costumes are not necessarily authentic to the Victorian era. Think of it as neo-victorian fashion. We are not constrained to authenticity as re-enactors are. Nobody is going to tell you, "You got it wrong." Trust your imagination. The more splendid and extravagant you look, the better. Have fun with it. Goggles on hats is a dead giveaway to the steampunk genre, but are not compulsory. They are however a good starting point.

Find us on Facebook at:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083420076725

Membership Requests:

Membership is done via our Facebook Group page. This is a private Facebook group for our members only. Membership to Norfolk Steampunk is free. However, membership requests will be vetted by the admin team. Whilst we are most welcoming of new members, only people who have a valid interest in Steampunk and wish to take an active part will be accepted.

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This website, 'Norfolk Steampunk UK', has been set up to inform the 'steam curious' about who we are and about the subculture of Steampunk. People who want to know more about Steampunk, but do not necessarily want to become Norfolk Steampunk members, can learn about Steampunk culture here, without having to join our private Facebook Group in order to see its content. The content on our Facebook Group page is private and only viewable to members. So the purpose of this website is to give the Norfolk Steampunk group, public Internet exposure, so that we can inform and educate the 'steam curious', without compromising the integrity, privacy and safety of our private Facebook group.

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