#SteampunkFestival #EnchantedCity #Troy #EnjoyTroy #DuncanCrary #SpotlightNews
By DUNCAN CRARY
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TROY — The Enchanted City steampunk festival returns to Troy and organizers expect the largest draw yet.
Celebrating its fifth year Saturday Sept. 15, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., The Enchanted City is an urban street fair and spectacle of steampunk fashion, fantasy and fabrications that magically transforms the historic blocks of downtown Troy into a “cosplay” alternative reality where Victorian fancy meets modern technology. The free festival has drawn more than 8,000 participants in previous years and expects to top that number this year.
The free festival offers a family-friendly inspired day of music, magic, games, performance, food and fantasy. Special events include a fashion show, historic tours, street performers and peddlers, storytelling, dancing, puppet shows, magic acts and more.
The festival is back in the streets of downtown Troy, after one year in Riverfront Park.
New additions this year include a Mad Steampunk Art Show Gala with absinthe tasting on the eve of the festival in the newly renovated Avery House in Troy
The Costumer is organizing and judging The Great Costumer Costume Contest during this year’s festival. Their team of costume experts will be on hand to judge and award the magnificent creations festivalgoers come dressed in.
An opening parade of Mad Machinery, showcases ingeniously devised “mechanical conveyances” (vehicles), the finest of which transports the festival’s figurehead, “Queen Mab.”
The “Inventors Challenge” is the Queen’s Tourney of Mad Machinery that pits these wonderful machines against each other in races against time, space and gravity, starting at 11:30 a.m.
This year the six City Council districts of Troy will represent their districts with a special steampunk “float,” modeled after the various houses in Mardi Gras.
San Diego-based musical performance act Steam Powered Giraffe will play the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall on Saturday Sept. 15 at 7 p.m.
For tickets and information, visit https://enchantedcity.ticketspice.com/the-enchanted-city-2018.
