SHOWDOWN @ UNOBTAINIUM

In Which I Discuss Volunteering and Speak Enthusiastically About the Success of the Fair

Never has a fair taken over such a large chunk of my time, and never has a fair been so much fun for me. Showdown @ Unobtainium is the first steampunk fair I have ever attended. It was held in Dale, Texas on November 10th and 11th. It was a blast, so much was going on, I saw so many lovely costumes, marvelous acting and people who were enjoying being there, and I made a profit, too.




The Early Days

I wouldn't have heard about this event except that I knew someone involved in it. Jenny Shaver, who'd become Showdown's volunteer coordinator, contacted me over the summer asking if I'd like to share a booth with her. Jenny and I had shared booths as art vendors at events in the past. I put off getting back to her. I wasn't sure if I'd still be living in the area in November. The next time I saw Jenny was at her birthday party in September. She asked again if I wanted to share the booth--I was glad and surprised she was still looking for a booth partner. She had a few posters on display for Showdown @ Unobtainium, and she talked about being the volunteer coordinator for the event, and the more I heard, the more intrigued I became. Before, all I'd known was that the fair would be steampunk-themed, but Jenny talked about something much more involved than the fairs and conventions I'd attended in the past. She was talking about building sets and making something that resembled a Renaissance Festival more than anything else, and I knew I wanted to be part of it.


Volunteering at the Make House

A few weeks later, after I recovered from a week when I was sick, I volunteered for the first time. I drove up to Austin to a neighborhood street. One of the Showdown staff owned a few houses on the same block, and he'd offered one of them as a place for us to build sets, paint signs and store props and costumes. I hadn't known what to expect, but I hadn't expected the group of fifteen or so people who were there that day. Eight or more people were practicing erecting a tent (which would be used as the cinema/church at the event) in the yard of one house. Jenny led the way down the street. Two houses down, more people were erecting wooden sets and furniture with the help of saws, hammers, spray paint and sawhorses, and inside the house, more people were painting signs or riffling through old thrift store period clothes hung on racks. Everyone was friendly. The only people I knew were Jenny, her husband, and a friend of theirs who'd been at the birthday party. I didn't care. I changed started painting signs. Already, I was enjoying myself, and I met a few new people in the process.

Volunteers and staff had dubbed the house the "Make House." The house was half-finished, which seemed fitting when our sets and props were also in their rare forms. The living room area was crowded with folding tables, a stack of old chairs, a dust-covered couch, a rack of clothes, tools, paint, snacks and already-completed signs stacked against one wall. People sat at the tables, painting canvas or wooden signs. There was no air conditioning, so it was a good thing it was October and, therefore, not as hot as the summer had been. The bathroom was half-finished, with the only light coming from a plugged-in desk lamp and holes in the walls for pipes to a missing bathtub. One of the bedrooms contained several racks of clothes that offered many intriguing possibilities for costumes, and furniture and baskets were crowded against one wall, which I learned were mostly props for the fair, including a grandfather clock and an old and rusty sewing machine. Dust was everywhere. Outside, the yard was covered in saw horses and stacks of wood. It was a great location.

Showdown @ Unobtainium would take place within the nineteenth-century mining town of Unobtainium, named after the ore that could be found in a vein under the town. Unobtainium is an unstable substance that is known either to explode or to transport hapless victims forward or backwards in time. The only time I'd ever heard of Unobtainium before was in the movie Avatar, but apparently, it has far deeper and more meaningful roots in steampunk. I learned there would be actors at the event, too, who would be playing Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison. Some of the volunteers I met at the Make House would also be playing some of the townspeople.

Over the next four Saturdays, other volunteers and I painted street signs, building signs, other prop signs and benches/pews. We spent time every Saturday rifling through clothes on the racks at the Make House, and I found a few things that I took home and tried on or attempted to alter. On the last Saturday, I helped paint the last of the signs and helped load the truck with all the props. We had old chairs, tables, doors, framed old photographs and drapes; tents, saloon walls and a bar; a cemetery fence, 19th-century household items and a really old and heavy bell. On the Thursday before the event, I drove to the fairgrounds on a farm in Dale, Texas and helped erect tents, move furniture and dig holes for the grave markers in the cemetery. I'm glad I drove there on a day when I wasn't on the clock, so I had time to go the wrong way a few times and backtrack, and I got to see the fairgrounds before the event, which was nice.

I met people who shared my interests in science fiction shows and in other things, some people who'd heard of the Baha'i Faith (which is so very rare and always delightful), and had some awesome conversations about NaNoWriMo, palindromes and rhyming words. The S@U volunteers are great and interesting people. It was the most fun I'd had in months and one of the best things I'd done all year, and the fair hadn't even started yet.


Showdown @ Unobtainium

This event was much better than I ever expected! Even after all the effort I saw so many people put into it, I was happy to see it pay off so wonderfully.
The show opened officially on Saturday at noon. I missed the opening ceremonies, if there were any, because Jenny, her husband and I were busy getting our booth ready. During the day on Saturday and again on Sunday, Mr. Edison and Mr. Tesla were seen walking about the town along with other townspeople, who all mingled with fairgoers. Jenny's husband, Ryan, aka Reverend Hadley, walked around holding a crucifix and a bible. On Saturday morning, Mr. Edison stopped by our booth and told us about the presentation on his inventions he would be giving at the main stage. Jenny showed him an actual page from a magazine from 1915, which included an ad for a phonograph made by Mr. Edison. He exclaimed that the price of 6.50 must have been a misspent, and that he specifically said 8.50. Effort and little details like that made the event enjoyable. Thax, the thespian coordinator, who was also acting as the Town Drunk, stopped by the booth a few times. Other volunteers trickled in an out, and I walked around a bit on Saturday. There was a Soap Box near our booth, and the volunteer who was also our Shakespearean thespian delivered some monologues atop the box.

Fairgoers wore some amazing steampunk-themed costumes. Men and women wore dresses with full-length skirts or three-piece suits, and all of their outfits showed a lot of thought and care. I wish I had their sewing and clothing design skills. I saw top hats with steampunk adornments, arm and wrist guards with antique keyboards and clock faces, belts and money purses and boots, and so much more. I wish I'd taken more pictures than I did, but a Google search has turned up some lovely public photo albums of the event, which I'm grateful for. One of the golf carts had been transformed into an airship, and I got the chance to ride it on Sunday.

There were presentations in the cinema on both days; I missed most of them, unfortunately, and only saw a few minutes of one. Near the main stage, Mr. Tesla and Mr. Edison delivered well-informed and education presentations on various inventions they'd designed, and I heard bits of what they said. Talented musicians performed on the main stage. The Maker Mad Science Lab that everyone had been excited about in the weeks leading up to the fair had actual technology on display that fairgoers could interact with. Art vendors sold some really cool things. Some things were priced what I expected, but some things were available for amazingly cheap prices. Calamity Jane, for example, sold postcards of herself for 10 cents.

I did well as a vendor on Saturday and okay on Sunday, and Jenny did the opposite, so it was a success for both of us. The breeze kept the weather from becoming too hot, but it did its best to knock over as many things as possible. It drizzled for a few seconds on Sunday, but otherwise, we had good weather.

On Saturday, a couple men rode horses around the grounds--they were part of our security team. Later, the horses disappeared (probably to keep them from getting spooked from fake gun blasts), but a gunfight ensued between the town lawmen and pirates invading on the airship. The pirates got away, and the lawmen were all shot. I hadn't expected that at all! I loved it. Later in the afternoon, another gunfight ensued, and Tesla was chased out of town. It turned out that Tesla had hired the mob to assassinate Edison, but Edison paid them more to go after Tesla.

The highlight of the evening happened at about 8:30, when Tesla and Edison were invited on stage for a debate. They spoke about their inventions, DC and AC electricity, and the moderator asked them historical questions about the first steam-powered motorcycle and other things, and asked them and the audience if the facts he listed were Certitudes or Shenanigans. The debate devolved into a shouting match as the physicists lost their cool and their hatred for each other rose to the fore. Reverend Hadley ran onto the stage to try to appeal to their common senses, and they ended up both punching him and hitting him in their anger against the church for interfering with science. And then the moderator knocked out the reverend, and he was carried off stage as the moderator and his helpers gave Tesla and Edison wooden posts with which to fight a duel to determine who was the best physicist. The fight was entertaining, with Matrix-style pauses and Edison trying to appeal for reason partway through, only to be stabbed by Tesla, who emerged the victor. The half-hour show was lovely.

After the debate/duel, the Tesla coils at the center of the grounds were activated, and everyone gathered in a circle to watch it spark. We learned the next day that the coils blew out one of the clip-on microphones Tesla and Edison had been using.

Jenny, Ryan and I packed up our artwork soon after that and left for the night. I don't know who stayed until 2 AM, when the event was scheduled to close for the night. Many volunteers and some attendees slept the night at the farm, on the campsite, but from what I heard, most people went to bed or left the fairgrounds at around midnight.

Sunday was just as fun as Saturday, but slower. We had no gunfights this time, and we had fewer fairgoers. I'm not sure why fewer people came the second day; the weather was the same as the day before, and some of the people who did return for the second day came without the costumes they wore the day before. How to attracting a bigger crowd on Sunday is something to think about before next year, if S@U happens again (and I hope it does).

Jenny did better on sales on Sunday. Several hours passed while I made no sales at all, but I'd done so well the day before, and I was enjoying myself so much I didn't mind. And I made several last-minute sales, so I was happy. The day was shorter, but it passed at an even pace, just like the day before. Edison and Tesla made their presentations again, Reverend Hadley delivered a sermon at the Church, the Barebones Orchestra performed on the main stage and liked them a lot, Maggie (the event founder and coordinator) gave a speech, and then Tesla and Edison had another debate that turned into a duel, and Reverend Hadley was beat up and knocked out again. I got to ride the airship with a few other people.

It was a great event. Everyone put so much effort into it and had so much fun. I hope this happens again next year. It can only get bigger and better.