'Victorian history, science fiction and wackiness - that's Steampunk'

Becki Bowden & Rachel RussellBBC News
News imageBecki Bowden/BBC Two people attending the festival, with a man on the right wearing a cream and blue suit with an old Victorian camera and steam coming out of it. He wears a cream top hat and sunglasses. A woman on the left has a blue hat and sunglasses and is wearing a Victorian style blue and white long dressBecki Bowden/BBC
News imageBecki Bowden/BBC A person is dressed in a long brown outfit with a red alien type mask, holding a skull on a stick and stood next to a brown campervan with metal objects stuck on the top. Becki Bowden/BBC

Organisers say between 85,000 to 100,000 people will have visited Lincoln over the course of the weekend
The festival allows visitors to bring their own interpretation of Steampunk

Thousands of people donned Victorian outfits with a futuristic twist as an annual festival returned to a city in Lincolnshire.

The Lincoln Steampunk Festival has been taking place over the Bank Holiday weekend once again, attracting people from all over the world to visit for four days of parades and exhibitions.

The event has been popular in the city since it started in 2009 and has returned this year despite concerns it would have to be moved due to being so popular.

John Naylor, who runs the event, said more is yet to take place, as Monday will see "one of the biggest days of the grand parade".

He said: "We're expecting something in the region of 85,000 to 100,000 people over the course of the weekend.

"It's a place for people to come from all around the world to show their creativity and express what they want to be and just have a great time.

"The costumes, art and silliness are British eccentricity but globally."

Mr Naylor went on to say the meaning of Steampunk was hard to pin down as "if you ask three of the people here, you'll get nine answers".

"Victorian history, science fiction, modern values, modern culture references, mix it all up and then add in a whole dose of wackiness and that is Steampunk," he added.

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