What will SilwerSteam 2023 be about? 

 

Now that we are back after the long, forced, ban on physical meetings during the pandemic, we decided that the theme for SilwerSteam would be the social meeting between enthusiasts, and that has been implemented in all the activities going on at the event!

 

As a participant, your first inclination of this is that we have tried to make as many of the program activities as possible available when You want to have a go at them, instead of at a specific time. Of course, some things will only happen once and at a preset time, but most activities will be more flexible!
Our firm belief when we have thought about what makes a get-together of fellow enthusiasts such a memorable event is that it is the interaction with each other that makes us smile in remembrance for years to come.

 

Therefore, we have started a silly, friendly, and not one-bit serious competition on SilwerSteam where everyone that wants can participate. Almost all activities (well, a fair part anyway) will be part of this, soon-to-be celebrated and highly lauded, SilwerSteam Team competition!

 

Let us show you the ropes of how we have thought (and bear with us if we take our time, this will all be very straightforward and easy on-site).

 

All participants that want to enter the competition (and here we hope that this means almost all of you! ) create a team with one or two other convention-goers. You chose a Steampunky name for your team, and then throw yourself into the competition!

Points will be awarded for 4 of the activities that you try during the event, and scoreboards at the reception/lounge will make sure to heap glory and bragging rights on the top teams as the rest tries to topple them from their throne.

As an example, you may enter the teapot racing competition whenever you like. Either you bring your own wondrous machine or you borrow ours and challenge a member of another team. Then you can get the race going in your own time. Each participant gets 1 point, and the winners 1 more. Then you are free to challenge someone else or just gasp at the museum’s awesome steam engines! You can, of course, enter multiple times to try to improve your score, but another 1 point will only be awarded if you compete against a New opponent.

So what activities will there be during SilwerSteam? What can your team (for you Will participate? Won’t you?!) do to carve a reputation as the most Steampunky of all?! Well, let us tell you…

 

These are the 4 activities that will earn you points in the Team competition:

 

Timeline, a fast and easy card game of historical when-did-what-occur-knowledge. All you must do is place the cards you draw of historical occurrences in the correct place, before, after, or between the other already placed cards that form a Timeline.

 

Splendid Teapot racing – Take your radio-controlled teapot through an obstacle course as fast as possible and try to reach the top runs that will bring your team to the top of the leaderboard at the end of the convention.

 

Tea duelling! – The more fashionable choice of duelling! Let your opponent shake from their top hat down to their steam-heated leggings, when you dip your biscuit in the teacup and bring your most time-tested glare to bear…

Tea duelling is also an individual competition as well, and quarter-finals will be held on Sunday.

 

And for those a bit more physically inclined…

 

Last one standing – SilwerSteam´s duelling ground. As the old saying goes “There can be only one!” (-Connor MacLeod). Here you issue your challenges, chose your weapon, and suffer the darts or arrows from devious opponents before opposing and defeating them in style! Weapons available will be bows and arrows, and guns (of some sort). They will (of course) be entirely safe (it would sort of being counterproductive to our goal of socializing otherwise) and otherwise known as Bows with foam-tipped arrows and Steampunky Nerf guns. As in the teapot racing, bring your own, or borrow ours. Cry Havoc and let slip the… well… whatever you think is most steampunk…

 If you are more inclined to the brainy side of things, you might want to try to solve…

The Nerf-pistol duels are also an individual competition with quarterfinals on Sunday.

________________________________________________________

 

But there is a lot more going on at SilwerSteam!

 

The SilwerSteam puzzle and mysterium! “Break-in at the Museum” is a text based typical murder-mystery, but the clues are hidden in the museum, in papers where you find out what clues you gather by interviewing the most usual suspects. You gather clues and solve puzzles that take you closer to the heart of the matter. Think Sherlock Holmes meets MYST, and you know what we are aiming at.

 

-But for all the steamy brass cogs in the world! What about fashion?!, we hear you cry.
Never fear, there will, of course, be a… 

SilwerSteam Costume Contest!! Send us your heliographic engraving (or photograph as the kids call it today) and then you write down the short story of your outfit and/or your Steampunk persona and let your peers decide who will be called to the finals! This contest is an individual competition and will be split in an adult competition and a youth competition.

There will also be a costume parade at Saturday where everyone who wishes to can participate. Please send us a picture and a short description beforehand to make the conferenciers job a bit easier. After the parade, we will gather all, both those in the parade as well as other Steampunk enthusiasts for a group photo in the Steam engine hall.

Speaking of photos, there will likely be a wealth of possible backdrops for taking your pictures. Apart from the building from the turn of the century, you have the steam engines, the old mechanical workshop, as well as the steampunk-inspired art collage in the reception to name a few! Oh! And did we forget to mention the tour on the steam slop s/s Gerda just for us in Steampunk costumes on Saturday? That will be a given photo op!!

 

If the flashes from photos of your awesomeness remind you that you actually didn´t score as fabulous as you deserved in the duels. You can always attend the archery workshop to sharpen your aim.    

 

If you then want to get Really inspired, we will have an art exhibition of Steampunk inspired paintings and works of art! We present paintings by Jaroslaw Jasnikowski. At least in our minds, he has managed to capture the very essence of Steampunk.

 

Then we mustn´t forget our fantastic artists and craftsmen that will make SilwerSteam unforgettable. There won’t be all artisans we have met before the pandemic, but those you will meet will be gold!

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Varietésällskapet Karneval, the awesome artists known from television and festivals will entertain at the courtyard on Saturday! (www.facebook.com/varietekarneval)  

 

Sibbarparn brings his amazing brass and electricity creations! (www.sibbarparton.se)  

 

Tingxa and Annabella Soffran both brings steampunk-inspired jewelry and lovely trinkets!

(www.tingxa.com)  (www.facebook.com/sofrans.imaginarium.design)  

 

Witek from Lux Artis Sweden who will show us Jasnikowski’s art will also bring his own leather craft to SilwerSteam this year. (www.facebook.com/LuxArtisSverige/)

 

Richard Andersson – the mad steampunk inventor will be on site selling amulets and showing of his inventions.

​

Feeling a bit of a craving for something sweet yet? A bunch of Anna and Nicklas children has promised to bring their teapots and home-baked cookies for your gastronomical pleasure at the Steampunk Cookie Extravaganza!

 

Want to find awesome Steampunk leathercrafts from Finland? Bard & Jester will have his team on site! (www.bardjester.com)

 

Billy O´Shea, the awesome author of the Kingdom of Clockwork universe will be on site to tell us about his novels! Also, Chris O´Shea will make us able to enter the world of his father's novels in a fantastic Virtual Reality Experience! (www.blackswan.dk)

 

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

For those who didn´t get enough in the fantastically important SilwerSteam Team Contest, there will boardgames aplenty to try out.

So, for those inclined in some social backstabbing, we have a whole library of Steampunk games in our Board-Game-Hangout! And if you feel a bit daunted by the rules, or want to try a new game, the boardgame heroes from the Nifelfang Society will be on hand to show you the ropes.

 

At the museum, you can visit a couple of interesting exhibitions. Among others The Castle that Disappeared (the story about the demolished royal renaissance castle in the city), Rapiers, Sabers & Cutlasses (about the sharp steel produced in Eskilstuna up to the 19th century), and finally Charged! (about the Swedish arms production, where some was also manufactured in Eskilstuna).

On Sunday we Steampunk enthusiasts will get an exclusive guided tour of the museum.

For the children, there are the superb playground The Little City Museum, as well as the curious youth exhibition Factotum and two exploration maps, The Mystery at Eskilstuna Huus and the Adventures of the curious mouse friends Pip and Petra.

 

But maybe the most awesome thing to behold is possibly the Mechanical Workshop from the turn of the century. Lathes, presses, and planes in a whole corridor. Even though the workshop won’t rumble on this year due to security regulations, they are still a sight to behold.

 

If the mechanical workshop wasn´t enough for you, why don’t head over to the museum´s piece-de-resistance…

 

…The Steam Engine collection!!
This is northern Europe’s largest, (and fingers crossed working) steam engine hall. You will find many beautiful steam engines from the turn of the century, even a steam fire truck! There is even an English locomotive from 1874 in the exhibition hall! It’s ok to play with it, as long as you don't start it up!

Anna’s favorites are the valve steam engine from Bolinder 1910 (especially the little oil cans) and the Generator. Nicklas is a nerd and is most impressed by the contrast between the technological marvels and the mosaic floor... (What can we say?!) Which one will be your favorite?

  

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, what do you think? We think this will be a really good starting point for a fantastic weekend of Steampunk awesomeness! But, of course, we haven´t yet got into our plans for the evenings, free tea, board games, candlelight meetings, and the Friday and Saturday Night Steam pub!

See you all Friday 1st of September!

 

​   - Anna and Nicklas Silwerulv.

​

www.facebook.com/silwersteam

and,

www.silwersteam.com