Photos and some thoughts from Alan Dearling
Visually delightful – a collision of two events spread across the market town of Hebden Bridge. Hebden, these days is perhaps universally best known as the centrepiece of ‘Happy Valley’! But during this weekend, there were literally thousands of visitors to the intertwined events.
The Hebden Bridge Vintage Weekend was organised by the Rotary Club of Hebden Bridge at Calder Holmes Park. It offered many displays of classic and vintage vehicles. Everything from tractors, military vehicles, Rolls Royce and Bentleys thorough to steam-engines and commercial vehicles.
Throughout the park and around town, there were dozens of specialist markets, music, and a tinge of Mad Max mayhem in changing the vibe of the Victorian mill town of Hebden Bridge. And with the Steampunk Event, a lot of added fantasy, Gothic Horror, Victoriana, post-apocalyptic imagery, time-travel, steam-machinery all transposed into alternative, mythical futures and pasts… Any excuse for some magical and inventive opportunities for dressing-up and theatricality.
Before visiting the event and even whilst there I was asked, ‘What is Steampunk?’
H.G. Wells’ ‘Shape of things to Come’ (1933) is to my mind a source, as is the Alexander Korda film, ‘Things to come’ filmed in 1936, as well as Jules Verne’s books and film adaptations, ‘20,000 Leagues under the sea’ and ‘Around the World in 80 Days’. And, of course, Johnny Depp and his characterisations in films such as the Mad Hatter in ‘Alice through the Looking Glass’, Edward Scissorhands, and as Ichabod Crane in ‘Sleepy Hollow’. Or, how about Yul Brynner as the out of control cyborg gunslinger in the 1973 ‘Westworld’? The ‘Mad Max’ franchise also springs to mind. It definitely seems to be to do with time-warps…
On-line it suggests that Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction or science fantasy that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk creative works are often set in an alternative history of the 19th century’s British Victorian era or the American ‘Wild West’.
Wikipedia adds:
“Steampunk may also incorporate additional elements from the genres of fantasy, horror, historical fiction, alternate history, or other branches of speculative fiction, making it often a hybrid genre…It explores alternative futures or pasts but can also address real-world social issues. The first known appearance of the term steampunk was in 1987, though it now retroactively refers to many works of fiction created as far back as the 1950s or earlier.
Steampunk is influenced by and often adopts the style of the 19th-century scientific romances of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Mary Shelley, and Edward S. Ellis’s ‘The Steam Man of the Prairies’. Several more modern works of art and fiction significant to the development of the genre were produced before the genre had a name. ‘Titus Alone’ (1959), by Mervyn Peake, is widely regarded by scholars as the first novel in the genre proper, while others point to Michael Moorcock’s 1971 novel, ‘The Warlord of the Air’, which was heavily influenced by Peake’s work. The film ‘Brazil’ (1985) was also an early cinematic influence…”
Whatever steampunk is, it certainly seems to provide plenty of fun and frolics, judging from the people and costumes on display in Hebden Bridge.
Many flights of fancy and fantasy straight out of westerns, science fiction and the worlds of Goths, films, TV series, books and even record covers. The characters wandering around the Vintage event in the park and around the town, evoked ‘The Fabulous Baron Munchausen’ (1962), directed by Karel Zeman and even the zany humour of the Bonzo Dog Dooh-Dah Band and the Early Eagles’ record covers featuring dangerous gunslingers and baleful-looking characters straight from the Wild West.
More recent Dr Who story-lines have involved set designs incorporating steampunk elements and Victorian items such as an old vintage typewriter. Likewise, Alan Moore’s and Kevin O’Neill’s 1999 ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’ graphic novel series further popularised the steampunk genre.
Steampunk is very much an ouvre of the imagination. One allowing and encouraging maximum participation, a real-time opportunity to explore the possibilities of ‘back to the future’, or, maybe days of ‘future passed’.