First Steampunk Festival in Rome

Ex mattatoio is a place in Testaccio which used to be a slaughterhouse but has been converted in the 70s into a cultural association building. There are always interesting events held here, like open air movies, music festivals and more.

Cart and I were there last weekend for the first ever Steamfest event in Rome. Steampunk, in a nutshell is a genre of science fiction meets British-Victorian era fashion. Think HG Wells or Jules Verne.

We reached there in the late afternoon and there was quite a turnout. I enjoyed looking at the fantastic costumes that many of the participants were wearing. I think takes a lot of love and dedication in creating these outfits, not to mention also time and money to find the perfect fit.

With the gazometro in the background, it gives a nice touch to the whole steampunk feel and I’ll bet that there were a lot of fantastic pictures being taken.

Apart from admiring the different costumes, there were also booths where steampunk outfits and accessories were sold. It wasn’t that expensive and it was tempting to get a costume for myself!

Apart from that, there were a lot of sideshows that I saw from our programme sheet, like,”Fighting lessons for Gentlemen”, “Cavern of horrors” as well as others. I really like how sheet was decorated.

The highlight of the show was probably the burlesque by Sweety J, the winner of the reality TV show, “Lady Burlesque“. Unfortunately the timing clashed with a dinner appointment with our friends and we’d have to give it a pass so I guess this would have to do for now.

(Not very safe for work)

Anyhow here are some of the costumes that Cart and I snapped :

She’s so cute!

Futuristic fortune teller from the past

Another cute one!

This explorer outfit was one of the more unique ones that we’ve seen.

Not sure if you could see it in the picture, but the photographer in there incorporated his iPhone on the sleeve of his costume.

I had fun going to my first Steamfest! So many interesting things to see and do. Thank you organizers! And I am definitely looking forward to the next one 🙂

Sidenote : If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy my post about Rome’s Comic Convention.