The recent Cogs N Crossbones event, sponsored by Panoptikin and produced by Kali's Hourglass was a rousing success!
The evening started off with Steampunk Music from an international assortment of bands at a volume appropriate for socializing and getting to know one another. This is an element often lacking in many events, so we made sure it was available form 8 to 9 at this one. Attendance was very good for the evening making the club very full, but not too crowded to dance, and dance we most certainly did after the show!
While people arrive at very different times, this ensured the ones that like to come early had time to speak meet new people, and in theory at least, meet some of the performers and hosts of the event before they get too busy. In practice, both are often scrambling to ensure the stage, lighting, sound system etc. are perfect and doing sound checks before the show. All the guests, however, had a very good opportunity to meet one another and socialize while final preparations converting a dance club into a concert venues were made just right.
As Panoptikon's venue had very high quality sound equipment, but like msot dance clubs, cannot be linked into safely for concert purposes, and the lighting is not designed for that purpose either, we had been planning the best methods to adapt and overcome for some time in advance. We managed to put together a pretty good stage and lighting for Darwin and helped her get the dance club turned into a music venue for the show such that everything happened on schedule.
Darwin Prophet and the Chronus Mirror gave an excellent concert that had people very impressed with what they could do for the community. We also managed to sell enough steampunk gear and pull in enough profit at the door to give them some love on a monetary level in thanks for their efforts after the show. At one point while selling music and Steampunk items donated to their merchandise table, we counted the cash so far, just before the show, and it came out to exactly 42.
Darwin and I had a good laugh and saw that as a great omen since it is the precise number given by the universe's most advanced supercomputer as the exact answer to the question "What is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything?" or words to that effect in some alien tongue, in one of our favorite comedic sci fi series "Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
After the concert, while the band was still breaking down their equipment, the lights went down, the fog machine kicked in, and the dance music pored into the club drawing attendees into the dance without hardly skipping a beat. Panoptikon's resident DJs and hosts Lord Byron and Son of Sam, poured out the very finest in darkwave, industrial, new wave, steampunk, and unusual dance tracks with a strong 3/4 time beat pulsing through every fiber of the club! The amazing number of video screens played music video for many of the tracks as well. The dancers were good enough to leave a clear path to one side of the small stage for removal of band equipment as the dance floor began to fill, so everything moved smoothly transitioning from one portion of the program into the next.
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| Some of the fashion Show participants after the show - much thanks to Ron Wheeler for this photo |
The Steampunk and Pirate Fashion show at midnight was also very well attended in that we programmed not only experienced models, but also most of the highly decorated attendees, to strut their stuff and show off their creations and ensembles on the catwalk from midnight to 1230 am! We started out the evening with a few experienced models and costumers scheduled, but recruited more and more from the audience to add more variety to lineup prior to the show, until it became very much the audience participation event we had hoped to produce!
Naturally by the end of the night and after tallying the door to ensure expenses and the door and Djs were paid, we still had considerably more to make a modest, but tidy profit, all of which we in Kali's Hourglass chose to give to the band, who more than earned it! There are some things that are worth far more than money like spending such a fun time with good friends! It also made it seem we can indeed produce a Steampunk Event that does well locally if we try to keep it reasonable, casual, fun, and put together both a program and budget appropriate to local needs and interests.
The vendors seemed pretty happy with the event as well. We knew that at a 6 hour event where there would be loud music and low lights it was a less than ideal setting for vendors, so we didn’t actually charge them for their space. They paid normal admission and provided their own tables. We provided advertising and customers. In the end they came through as we had hoped adding extra color, sights, sounds, and wares to delight those attending the event. When the vendors are part of the show, and we are using a venue that won’t hold more than around 200 max, it hardly seems right to charge extra for the space. As a result, they were able to make some profit while having a good time, and everyone left happy!
Thank you all so much for everyone that came and especially to Darwin Prophet and the Chronus Mirror, Lord Byron, Son of Sam, the Exclusives staff, and all the lovely people that agreed to participate in our Steampunk & Pirate Fashion Show at midnight. A special thanks also to our Vendors who helped to add color and interest to the evening. I hope you all had a great time!
You can see some photos of the event and the attendees as well as most of the fashion show participants on the event page at:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1374526556103577/
