May 18-20,2012

This was the third year of Steampunk World’s Fair(SPWF),  it moved back to its first year’s hotel and expanded to a 2nd neighboring hotel.  Immedately we could tell it was much better than the previous year’s venue.  The dealers rooms were spread throughout both hotels, and by rooms some were actual rooms.  Some dealers opted to pick spaces in the traditional dealer room with tables and other dealers rented out rooms in designated hallways of the hotel to setup full shops in the rooms.  It was a wonderful concept making it like them like small town shops.  In the parking lot they designated some outdoor dealer space so luckily it didn’t rain.  I’m not sure what was the backup plan if it rained.  The Steampunk lifestyle is very interesting,  there is a lot of creativity, people make things themselves, but with so many dealers around a lot of people support these businesses by buying a lot.

With two hotels and a lot of separated space, they had a lot of bands and entertainment.  They were able to have multiple groups setup and play all at the same time.  So if you didn’t like one performance.  There was another one you could watch.  The main hotel’s courtyard was turned into a stage/eating area.   They had their costume contests there and had great carnival acts performing all day.  New this year they had sort of a kid’s section where next to the fence they had carnival games they could play.  With so much going on we didn’t hit the panel rooms but as many were packed we wouldn’t of been able to get inside.

So in all it was a much improved convention over the last year.  We recommend people to go see it even if they aren’t into Steampunk.  We also recommend checking out other events run by the same management.  Look at http://www.jeffmachevents.com/ for more information.