Mill City Steampunk Festival to take place in Lowell

The first annual Mill City Steampunk Festival is coming to Lowell the weekend of April 30 to May 1. Co-sponsored by the Lowell National Historical Park and UMass Lowell, this free festival will celebrate the city's past, present and future with a variety of Steampunk-themed activities.

Start your Festival experience at the Lowell National Historical Park Visitor Center, where visitors can have their photo taken with Charles Dickens at a green-screen photo booth. Come in costume to participate in a contest for a cash prize. Next, take a free trolley ride and go on tours of the Suffolk Mill and the Tremont Powerhouse. These tours, available for one weekend only, will take you "Behind the Gears" for a glimpse into Lowell's industrial origins. Trolley tours will be available at 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and the photo booth from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. all weekend.

Dubbed the "Steampunk Guru" by the Wall Street Journal and the "Steampunk Evangelist" by WIRED magazine, Bruce Rosenbaum will be the featured presenter at the festival this year with his talk, "Steampunk Design: Re-imagining Resilience," at the Boott Events Center, 115 John St., on Saturday, April 30, 3 to 4:30 p.m. Rosenbaum has described Steampunk as a combining of opposites, a place where past and present, art and science, and man and machine merge.
The OtherWhere Market will be up and running on Saturday at Mill No. 5, followed by an Eventide Social, a grand party to celebrate Steampunk, not to be missed. Lowell Makes is offering the presentation "From Bicycles to Airplanes" and leather-making workshops on both Saturday and Sunday at 47 Lee St. The Tsongas Industrial History Center, at 115 John St., will run a "Makers on the Line" workshop for participants of all ages to play with timepieces in hands-on activities.

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