PORT TOWNSEND — This weekend, downtown Port Townsend will be a place for people-watching as costume-clad steampunkers take over during the sixth annual Brass Screw Confederacy Steampunk Festival.
“It’s awesome people-watching,” said Cindy Madsen, who along with Nathan Barnett started the Brass Screw Confederacy Steampunk festival after moving to Port Townsend in 2011.
The festival will start at 5 p.m. Friday and run until 3 p.m. Sunday. It will include music, dancing, costumes, shopping, competition and cannon fire.
Some activities charge admission — tickets can be purchased at brass-screw.org/index.php — while others are free.
BOOM!, or the Brotherhood of Oceanic Mercenaries, a gang of traveling pirates, will be at Memorial Field with some pint-sized cannons, which will be a new addition to the festival.
New this year will be a tea den to give festivalgoers a place to take a break and have some tea and cookies before heading back out into the festivities.
A new competition this year will be tea dueling: Competitors will see how long they dare dunk a cookie into tea before it crumbles.
“It’s like a game of chicken but with tea and cookies,” Madsen said. “It takes nerves of steel.”
Both the tea duel and tea den are sponsored by B. Fuller Mortar &Pestle tea merchants of Seattle.
In “tactical croquet,” competitors must navigate such complicated obstacles as jumps and hoops instead of the traditional croquet wickets.
“It’s like a cross between mini-golf and croquet,” Madsen said.
This year will feature two new surprise obstacles created by artist Josh Haas of Tulsa, Okla.
The event will be centered around the Cotton Building at 607 Water St., where there will be music and steampunk short films throughout the festival.
There will also be a number of musical performances at Legion Hall and out at Fort Worden (a shuttle will be provided from the Cotton Building on Saturday night), as well as a burlesque show and absinthe bar for those attending who are 21 and older.
At Pope Marine Park, there will be the Bodger’s Competition, in which steampunkers can show off their creations and be judged by steampunk celebrities Tobias McCurry, Will Brown aka Lord Towers and Kit Ward-Crixell.
“There’s a lot of creativity involved,” Madsen said. “It’s a bit edgy and fun and really hits the kid in everyone.”
The traditional Bazaar of the Bizarre also will be open for those looking to add to or begin creating their own steampunk look.
“It’s so cool to see little kids go into the bazaar and come out with a hat or goggles and just be grinning from ear to ear,” Madsen said.
The event is for all ages. There will be a pirate scavenger hunt for kids as well as plenty of games, according to Madsen.
Madsen said when Barnett moved to Port Townsend in 2011, he figured it would be perfect for steampunkers.
“Port Townsend is such a perfect town for steampunk,” Madsen said.
She described steampunk as “Victorian science fiction.”
“Jules Verne was the first steampunker,” she said. “Now it’s an international happening. There are conventions all over the world, but they’re in big hotels.
“So when people wander around in costume, they’re wandering around a Hyatt, where here they’re fully emerged in this Victorian aesthetic.”
More information on the Brass Screw Confederacy can be found at brass-screw.org/index.php.
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Jefferson County Editor/Reporter Cydney McFarland can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 55052, or at cmcfarland@peninsuladailynews.com.
