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Steam Garden 8: Travel through time at Tokyo’s premier steampunk event 【Photos】

Preston Phro Feb 14, 2015
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As we promised a few weeks ago, we swung by Steam Garden 8: Meiji Democracy and took in the sights and sounds! With more photos than your Facebook feed after a weekend of drunken revelry, we are happy to report that Steam Garden is both an amazing way to spend a Saturday, and an event you’ll definitely want to check out as soon as you can.

Click below for some highlights of the steampunk event and tons of fashion and cosplay photos!

If, like us until last weekend, you’ve never been to a steampunk event before, Steam Garden might be the best introduction you could hope for. Everyone is extremely welcoming, and, of course, the fashion and costumes were simply amazing. While Comiket and Wonder Festival may have a wider variety of sources of inspiration, the work and detail we saw at Steam Garden was nothing short of amazing. Since the Meiji Period was the theme of the event, it left participants a lot of room to get creative–and the cross-over between Western/Victorian and Japanese fashion produced something that looked as if it was stolen from a museum in a parallel dimension.

▼Appearing in textbooks on Earth-53.

There were also around 15 merchants set up with everything from corsets to leather goods to vaporizers and even a few prop weapons–at least we think they were props! There’s no dress code at Steam Garden, so you can show up wearing jeans and a T-shirt if you want, but it won’t take long for you start craving a few steampunk goods for yourself, so you’ll want to stop by the ATM before heading inside the venue.

▼”High quality” doesn’t begin to describe this.

And while the vendors and other attendees are all you really need to have a good time, the performers were all top-notch as well. In addition to music, supplied by bands like Kao=s, there were also dancers, sword fights, and a street performer, with each performance spaced apart enough to give everyone time to mingle and dance to the DJs‘ selections.

If you’re feeling sad for missing Steam Garden 8, fear not! Another event is coming–though no details are available right now. However, you can follow the Tokyo Inventors Society, the group that organizes Steam Garden, on Twitter or keep an eye on their website, so you’ll be the first to know when it’s announced. Hopefully, we’ll see you there next time!

First, here are just a few of the merchants who were at the event. You could easily spend all the money in your bank account and still be wanting more…

▼Candy Noir

▼Abilletage

▼Denki Endorphin/Ringoya

▼Leather 5160

▼Alchemic Machine Industries

▼Gead

▼Steampunk Oriental Laboratory

▼Mac Nakata

And, here’s what you’ve all been waiting for: Fashion and cosplay photos! There were a ton of amazing outfits, so we obviously couldn’t capture them all, but you can find more photos from the event on Facebook here and here.

▼We just stared at the DJ booth for a few minutes…

▼Yuki from Clow x Berry

▼Some swordsmen who were slicing and dicing up the stage.

▼This contraption was hand-made from a sewing machine!

▼Don’t worry–the DJs weren’t playing with matches. It’s just a smoke machine!

▼Kiko from Kikonchi L/R

▼Bishu, whose dance performance was spell-binding.

▼On the right is Luke, one of the co-founders of the event.

We hope you enjoyed taking a little detour into another dimension with us. And we look forward to seeing you at the next Steam Garden!