HOME | MinistryOfSteampunk | Steampunk Events

Welcome to the Ministry of Steampunk (MoS) website.

If you are new to the site, start here or if you are a regular visitor, check out the noticeboard below for the latest information.

Noticeboard

NOTICEBOARD

Quick links

If you have come to the MoS website looking for links to purchase wristbands, tickets, or merchandise for any of the forthcoming MoS events the links below will take you straight where you want to go.

GHOST NIGHT TICKETS AND MEDALS

IMMORTAL BALL TICKETS

HALLOWEEN ACCOMMODATION AT BGU

HAUNTED HIGH TEA

DOWNLOAD PROGRAMME AS PDF

Steampunk Halloween

Just about all the information you need about the Steampunk Halloween weekend taking place from Friday evening 1 November through to Sunday afternoon 3 November at the County Assembly Rooms in Lincoln is now up on the website page which you will find here.

Closer to the event we will prepare a PDF giving all the times of the daytime features that you can download from this page and the Halloween page.

There are still tickets available for Ghost Night on Friday and a few for The Immortal Ball on Saturday evening.

Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) are offering rooms in their new Student Village accommodation for £70 per night. The booking link is live now and can be accessed here or though the link on the main Halloween page.

Steampunk New Year 2025

Will be taking place at The Belmont Hotel in Leicester from 29 December 2024 - 1 January 2025 as previously announced (see 'Events' tab above). Bookings are being taken by the hotel now - see the website page for a link to the hotel website.

Steam Trains and Fairytales

The Ministry's fourth Fairytale Weekend is going to be held over the weekend of 17-18 May 2025.

The location will be the Midland Railway at Butterley (https://www.midlandrailway-butterley.co.uk/)

Visitors will arrive at Butterley station where they will need to undergo passport and maybe fairytale-related health checks and the like before being transported by Steam Train to the main event venue at Swanwick Junction.

At Swanwick junction there are station buildings, engine sheds, various model and garden railways, tea rooms, a bar, a chapel, an adjacent country park and much more to explore and enjoy. We will have a Steampunk market too.

As well as welcoming all fairytale characters as at the previous steampunk fairytale weekends at Belvoir and Tutbury castles, the railway location at Butterley will provide the perfect backdrop for the 'grittier' side of Victorian fae, pucks and other species as seen in the Amazon Prime TV series 'Carnival Row'.

Tickets are not yet on sale. As soon as this changes it will be announced here and on our Facebook page Welcome to the Asylum.

The Town That Never Was

Will be returning to Blists Hill Victorian Town over the weekend of 5-6 July 2025.

More information will become available in due course.

Asylum XV (AXV)

Weekend at the Asylum will be returning over the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of August 2025.

As it will be the fifteenth Asylum, the Ministry have been planning it for some time. At the Asylum 14 closing ceremony the following were announced:

We will be using the abbreviation 'AXV' to stand for Asylum-XV.

We will be welcoming Steam Powered Giraffe back to play at the event.

The Asylum always attracts Steampunk visitors from all over the world, but for AXV we will be increasing the international theming of the event. More news will follow.

We will be making some grants available for Steampunk makers who are interested in creating large exhibition pieces, particularly the kind of creations suitable to take part in the Grande Promenade. More details will follow.

We have had some silicone wristbands made which bear the words "AXV - Weekend at The Asylum - 22-25 August 2025". There are suitable to be worn year-round as you wait patiently for and get excited about AXV. They were on sale at Asylum XIV for £1 each. We have some left and they will be for sale at future MoS events, but when they are gone they are gone. These wristbands will not gain you access to AXV!

Event access wristbands and tickets for AXV are not yet on sale. As soon as this changes it will be announced both here and on our Facebook page Welcome to the Asylum.

Asylum Location for 2025

Weekend at the Asylum has always taken place in the City of Lincoln. For a variety of reasons but including the cost of accommodation in Lincoln over the August Bank Holiday in 2025, the MoS cannot confirm that the event will take place in Lincoln in 2025.

Weekend at the Asylum is a community. We are a grand happening. Whilst we may like a place, we are not the location, we are the people.

Much work is ongoing behind the scenes, involving conversations with various organisations and past partners in Lincon as well as organisations and venues in alternative city locations.

As soon as we have clarity on the location for AXV this will be broadcast both here and on our Facebook page Welcome to the Asylum.

Meanwhile, if you book accommodation for AXV in Lincoln we strongly urge you to ensure that you only secure accommodation that you can cancel.

We have not taken this step lightly. It is creating a significant amount of additional work for the MoS at a time when we have just returned to our day jobs after running Asylum XIV. But we are doing what we are doing for the Steampunk community as a whole, to protect the event and ensure to the best of our ability that Weekend at the Asylum remains accessible to as many members of the Steampunk community as possible.

Thank you for your understanding.

Links to the FINAL version of the Asylum Daytime Programme and the Blue Plaque Scheme

We have now completed the programme for Asylum XIV and are pleased to release the planner document and the daytime programme, both of which can be downloaded as PDF files from the links below.

This is version 2 of the 'Final' document correct as at 8 August. It contains one or two minor typo corrections and a very small number of other adjustments. If for any reason it proves necessary to make further changes over the last few weeks prior to the event we will announce them here and will provide links to updated versions.

Also here you will find a link to a PDF file listing the businesses taking part in the MoS Spoof Blue Plaque Scheme for Asylum XIV. This is the third version of this document in response to further businesses joining the scheme.

Please be sure to check back before the event to ensure that you have the most up to date version of all 3 documents.

Asylum Planner

Daytime Programme

Blue Plaque Scheme

Panic News

The Official Asylum Panic Officer has been in touch.

Follow the link below to read his first communiqué for Asylum XIV.

From the Panic Officer

Asylum Tea Parties and Supper Clubs

Once again at Asylum XIV our friends at the County Assembly Rooms will be running afternoon teas on Friday and Saturday as well as early evening Supper Clubs on Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, all in the magnificent splendour of the Edwardian Suite.

The Tea Parties have been very popular events for many years and the Supper Clubs were very popular last year when first introduced.

You can find out more information about all of these catered events and how to buy tickets for them here.

The Asylum medals are now in stock

We are really excited to be able to share the first image of this year's comemorative Asylum medal. You will find more information about this medal as well as this year's T-shirts and two new types of pin on the Asylum Merchandise page.

Asylum Merchandise

The Town That Never Was

Blists Hill Victorian Town - 29-30 June

It's here! The programme for Saturday and Sunday at The Town That Never Was is now up on the website.

We are trying very hard to release information such as this at the earliest opportunity, so please do check back from time to time in case of any subsequent changes to the content or order of events.

Meanwhile we hope you enjoy getting ready for your return to The Town That Never Was.

If you want to embrace the optional Steam Western theme we look forward to seeing what you come up with and of course we are particularly looking forward to seeing your entries for the H.G. Wells award.

You can also download the timetable in PDF format for each day by clicking the buttons below - then you can resize the document on your device, store and print if you wish.

Saturday Programme PDF

Sunday Programme PDF

Asylum XIV Group Meet-ups

It will be a few weeks before we can release the whole daytime programme for Asylum XIV, but meanwhile here are the times for the various group meet-ups during the event.

Did you miss out on the limited edition Steampunk Fairytale pins which were on sale at the Steampunk Fairytale Weekend? We have a modest number left over and to test the water for possibly selling other MoS merchandise items by post, we are offering them for sale by mail order.

You can purchase the pair including postage and packing here for a total price of £11.50, while stocks last.

Steampunk Fairytale Pins

Julia Cameron was a 19th Century photographer who concentrated on the artistic content of her images, rather than simply recording what was in front of her.

For Asylum XIV we have added a new award in her name to The Great Exhibition. You will find further details including how to apply for the award here and general information about the Great Exhibition here.

The Cameron Award for Photography

Part of the Great Exhibition at Asylum XIV

Steampunk New Year 2025

The Belmont Hotel Leicester

29 December - 1 January 2025

We had such a great time celebrating the Steampunk New Year 2024 at the Belmont Hotal that we are going back to do it again for New Year 2025.

The event will be loosely themed on 'Around The World In 80 Days' and further details are now on the website page here. More will follow much nearer the date, but meanwhile the hotel are already taking bookings.

The Town That Never Was

Blists Hill Victorian Town - 29-30 June

Information about this year's trip back in time to The Town That Never Was is now up on the relevant pages that you can access through the main menu above - or start here.

More information will be added over the coming days and weeks. If you haven't been before be sure to check out the selection of photos taken at last year's event in the gallery here.

If you want to find out about Blists Hill Victorian Town including information about tickets, parking etc., then you will find it on the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust website which you can reach here.

Steampunk Fairytale Weekend News!

The programme for the weekend is now up on the website here and it contains something for every Steampunk, every Fairytale Character and everyone else who is just looking for a fabulous event next weekend.

This is going to be the very last major event at Tutbury Castle whilst the inimitable and remarkable Lesley Smith is the castle curator. It is a very special opportunity for Steampunks to enjoy an amazing event in a totally new venue with all manner of fabulous features.

Lesley is well known for her costumed appearances as famous historical characters. She always dresses the part (even for radio interviews) and is the heart and soul of any gathering. Many will have seen her appearances on television (for example on 'Most Haunted'). She is always charismatic, bounding with energy and will be with us for the whole weekend, but most importantly she will be performing for us on Saturday evening as Elizabeth I, the original Faerie Queen.

Other features for the weekend include witches dancing, magic, traders, the Brass Brothers, S.C.O.N.E., Belly Fusion, tea duelling and teapot racing and a number of talks on Fairytale and other Steampunk subjects.

It will also be the perfect opportunity to pick up a set of MoS fairytale pins, subject to availability.

The links for advance tickets to the daytime and evening events are above and we can't wait to see you all there!

The pictures below are from last year's event - you will find more on the Gallery here and on the Welcome to the Asylum Facebook page.

Asylum Evening Event update

All the information you need to know about the evening events for Asylum XIV is now on this website under the 'events' tab. You will find an introductory page and then additional pages for each of the Asylum evenings.

We hope that everyone coming to the evening events will buy a daytime wristband so that they can support the daytime programme and attend all that it has to offer, but we are not making this mandatory this year, except for the Advance Guard (for which you must have proof of purchase of a weekend wristband) or the Dead Dog Party (for which you will need to show your wristband on admission).

The Steampunk Fairytale Weekend

It's time to prepare yourself for a host of important and exciting announcements about forthcoming MoS events, the first of which concerns the third Steampunk Fairytale Weekend which will be held at the fabulous Tutbury Castle in May.

We have begun to construct the website page here to which we will be adding lots more information over the coming weeks.

Did someone ask about the Asylum?

As the Ministry's (indeed the world's) biggest Steampunk event of the year, The Asylum Steampunk Festival takes a fair bit of planning and preparation and the elves at MoS HQ have been working on it for some time - in fact pretty much since the closing ceremony of Asylum XIII.

Asylum XIV promises to be another huge event with a host of daytime features and a variety of evening events including some new events that we will announce in due course.

We are getting very close to being able to release the daytime wristbands and hope to do so before the end of February, subject to getting our last few ducks in a row. But don't worry, we will be giving everyone plenty of notice here and on our Facebook Welcome to The Asylum page before we do. Meanwhile you can find out more about this year's Asylum medal here.

Steampunk New Year!

Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate Steampunk New Year with the MoS at the wonderful Belmont Hotel in Leicester. We had a fabulous time and the feedback has been excellent. You will not surprised to learn that we are investigating the possibility of doing it all again next year - but more of that later.

Look what's just arrived at MoS HQ: shiny new Hulloween II medals!!

ASYLUM ON THE BACK COVER OF 'QUANTUM' COMIC

Word of The Asylum continues to spread - check out the full page advert for The Asylum on the back cover of issue #2 of the amazing Quantum comic anthology by Time Bomb Comics - in stores now. You might just spot one or two people you recognise...

About the Mos

The Ministry of Steampunk is a voluntary organisation who host Steampunk and alternative history events, including creating and hosting the Asylum Steampunk Festival in Lincoln since 2009.

Steph Steam drinking tea [Steph Steam]_edited.jpg

We are a somewhat amorphous organisation with various offices and bureaux that cover some of the myriad aspects of Steampunk and the wider anachronistic creative scene.

We make no attempt to define Steampunk but instead strive to create opportunities where Steampunks can gather together and share their imaginations, creativity and friendship.

The Ministry's new website has been a while in the making, so why not find somewhere comfy to sit with a nice cup of tea and take a look around - follow the menus for information about our upcoming events, the Ministry itself, the various ways you can get involved and information on all manner of subjects from illicit markets to photography and weapons to tea duelling!