ABOUT THE MINISTRY

In the early years of steampunk the people of Britain were clamouring for events to attend and so the forerunner of the MoS (called the Victorian Steampunk Society at the time) was set up to create events for the community.

The idea was simple. If active steampunks organise events then other steampunks in the UK could attend them if they wanted to. If this comes from within the community then we all support each other; it is not just an attempt to “chase the brass pound” and make money from steampunks.

As steampunk grew and the interests and enthusiasms of the community broadened, the time came when it seemed right to drop the 'Victorian' in the name, and hence the Ministry of Steampunk (MoS) was formed and took its place.

The MoS today comprises a small core team who dream up events but who also collaborate with external parties to try and put on the very best steampunk events that we can. To the best of our ability we try to ensure that all of our events have a unique character - hence the suite of events that we are currently working on and will be promoting over the coming year.

The Asylum Steampunk Festival is run by volunteers on an unpaid basis. Money raised from daytime wristband sales and evening event tickets is used to pay for venue hires, equipment hire and purchase, performers fees and accommodation, ticketing costs and other content over the weekend as well as a number of unseen costs such as insurances, equipment storage and short wave radio licences. Income is also used to provide accommodation, travel and basic subsistence for the crew. Once the event’s costs are covered, any remaining funds are used by the MoS to develop, promote, improve and fund other steampunk events to further build this wonderful vibrant community

We strive to listen to the steampunk community and are always pleased to receive feedback on what we do, however we are fully aware that we cannot please all of the people all of the time.

Our over-arching philosophy is simple. We try to...

Listen to what people are asking for.
Set up events which people may want to attend.
Run them to the best of our ability, and
Try to raise money for charitable causes if we can.

Because the core team of the MoS is so small we depend very much on the steampunk community to help us develop ideas, to run features at our events and to encourage others to get involved - whether they are a band that steampunks might like to listen to, or a steampunk trader, or a crazy enthusiast who has an idea which could develop into something incredible.

This website includes a number of 'getting involved' forms. We look forward to continuing to receive your most excellent suggestions that we can hopefully program into one of our forthcoming events. Please consider getting involved yourself, either by volunteering to help at one of our events, by suggesting an event feature that we can help you to run or by persuading bands or traders to contact us.

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