Hand-built sculptural vehicles versus flying monkeys, killer robots, and zombies. On a closed course. Judged by how well the contraption handles the chaos. This is the Obtainium Cup Contraptor’s Rally, produced by Obtainium Works out of Vallejo, California, and the 10th Annual edition just went down on July 28 at Mare Island Art Studios. Ten years of this glorious nonsense. The Doctor approves wholeheartedly.

If you need a scorecard: participants build people-powered (and occasionally motorized) sculptural vehicles out of found objects, hence "obtainium," which is the most SteamPunk word that has ever existed. They then pilot those contraptions around an obstacle course while being assailed by stuffed flying monkeys, confronted by mad robots, and generally menaced by the entire cast of a fever dream. Trophies are awarded for creativity, tenacity, and participation. There is no trophy for dignity, because dignity didn’t show up. Good.

Ten years in, the Obtainium Cup is proof that the maker spirit is alive, greasy, and completely off its rails, in the best possible way. High-5 to every contraption that survived. And a moment of respect for every one that didn’t. Via: The Steampunk Explorer

The people behind the Great Dickens Christmas Fair spent two months building 46 period structures in a pair of Cow Palace warehouses, loaded the whole town onto eight semi-trucks, drove it to Pier 35, and reassembled a functioning Gold Rush-era San Francisco on the waterfront. Over 100 costumed performers (miners, sailors, revue dancers, a juggler, a magician), a docked brigantine you can actually board, saloons, a general store, the Alta California newspaper office, and a pan-for-gold station. Today and tomorrow only. If that logistical audacity doesn’t read as Punk, I don’t know what does.

The San Francisco Historium Spotlight runs August 22-23, 2026 at Pier 35 (10am-6pm). Tickets are $40 adults, $20 kids 5-12, free under 5. Red Barn Productions has been doing this flavor of immersive living-history theater since 1961, and it shows: this isn’t a theme park, it’s an argument that the past was more interesting than the present, made entirely out of hand-painted set pieces and sheer theatrical nerve. The Doctor approves. High-5 to the scenic carpenters who built a ship facade out of lumber, because during the actual Gold Rush, abandoned ships were cannibalized to build San Francisco anyway. History, recursing into itself. Beautiful.

Via: SFist

August isn’t done with us yet. The Steampunk Explorer’s North America calendar shows a steampunk festival dropping in Coldwater, Ontario on August 29, and then the whole thing turns into a cavalcade: Hannibal, Missouri (September 4-7), Fergus, Ontario (September 11-12), Colfax, California (September 12-13). The brass horde is mobilizing on multiple fronts simultaneously. The Doctor approves of this level of coordination.

If you’re anywhere near the Great Lakes corridor and you DON’T have Coldwater on your radar, that’s a personal failing I cannot fix for you. Ontario in late August is legitimately gorgeous, and the idea of gears and goggles against the backdrop of cottage country is the kind of thing the Omega7Red Formulae practically writes itself for. Go. Wear the hat. You know which hat.

Meanwhile, two steampunk gatherings also happened TODAY (one in Stamford, CT and one in Los Angeles) on opposite coasts, which means either the movement is growing, or the Formulae is leaking again. Either way: high-5. Via: The Steampunk Explorer

Tomorrow, August 15th, the Hornsea Museum in East Yorkshire gets the full Formulae treatment: Victoriana, steam, gears, and presumably at least one person in goggles explaining how their ray gun works to a very patient docent. The museum’s annual Steampunk Day drops cosplayers and makers into a genuine local history collection, which is exactly the kind of collision the Doctor approves of. Real artifacts. Real history. Now add corsets and airship maps. Good job, high-5!

This is the move the genre has always deserved: not a convention center with fluorescent lighting and carpet that hasn’t been replaced since 1987, but an actual museum where the past is already doing the heavy lifting. The Punk just walks in and finishes the job. If you’re anywhere near the East Riding of Yorkshire today, you know what to do. Nothing can beat old age and betrayal, but a steampunk museum day is a solid second place.

Via: The Steampunk Explorer