LSM has been going since October 2011 and is one of longest running steampunk gatherings in the world. (1st is Steam Powered: The California Steampunk Convention which was on 31st October to 2nd November 2008 and is now known as Gaslight Expo, 2nd is Lincoln Asylum which ran 11th to 13th September 2009 (although they keep claiming they are the world's longest running but this is clearly not the case), 3rd Steampunk NZ June 2010 although this was kickstarted by a steampunk exhibition piece at a party in 2008. 

(Another two originals were Steampunk World's Fair which ran from May 2010 up until 2017 and Steamcon ran from 2009 to 2013). 

Our next event (October 2020) will be our 40th steampunk market in Yorkshire. (This is not including the two events I was persuaded to co-ordinate as the first London Steampunk Market in 2012 nor the two I did as “Victorian” by mixing LSM with traders from my craft fairs. Let's not add in the steampunk gigs with Professor Elemental and Montague Jacques Fromage!)

I want this to be a place where steampunks like to shop. There will always be a decent number of steampunk traders there for new attendees and members of the public to get started gently into steampunk and for existing steampunks to top up their top hats, see their way to buying more goggles... I'll quit while I'm ahead but you know what I mean.

Most steampunks do have a life outside of steampunk and seem to be into other things such as sci-fi (Dr Who, Star Trek etc), fantasy (Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings etc), geeky (superheroes and comics etc), have goth and vintage influences and preferences in their choice of fashions/styles (past and present) - larping and historical re-enactment seems to cross over into steampunk as well as quite a few of us having hobbies involving model railways and dolls houses.

To me, if this is what steampunks like, then they should be able to buy these things at a market dedicated to them. 

We predominantly use various Leeds, Halifax and Bradford museums but have also done ones in London and Batley. We mainly focus on West Yorkshire; there has been ten different locations used for markets so far but our roots will always remain in Leeds.

At each event we give a free pitch to a relevant or local charity/good cause, with all the traders donating something to the tombola to raise money. So far, we have facilitated £5038.53 being raised and helped twentyfour different charities and causes.

We are a more intimate, personal event and run day time markets only, for both days of the weekend, generally not exceeding fifty traders on each day (not the same traders each day as well). We have and intend to stay within the realms of our capabilities as we do not manage by committee nor engage huge teams of volunteers to assist. We receive no funding from anywhere to run these markets - each market helps to finance the one that follows. We like to do things at a personal level – biggest is not always best! 

Absolutely anyone and everyone! They’re not just for steampunks – we get goths, cosplayers, larpers, sci-fi fans and more besides. In particular, we encourage members of the public who are curious to see what it’s all about. We repeat, everyone is welcome!

There are NO admission fees payable to LSM. Any admissions charged are those of the venue (museums) itself and where possible we always seek for these to be lower on the days of our markets. This is in the interests of the visitors as they have more left to spend and our traders who thus have more available to be spent with them. 

The trading area is always located indoors (we know the weather!) and either under one roof or at worst, adjacent ones. We try to ensure that all venues are equality act compliant in terms of access. Any traders with a gazebo that wish to trade outdoors are welcome to do so if space permits. The only outdoor activity is the day time entertainment which will be under shelter if the weather turns wet.

No, but we do invite traders, artists and authors that are the best in their respective fields and try to avoid duplication where possible. We invite traders we believe have a unique offer for our customers and would like to keep it that way – we don’t want everyone selling the same thing. We welcome applications from new traders selling something new and diverse.

In addition to the market and the venue itself, we do provide entertainment in various shapes and forms during the course of the day. This is enough to keep the customers around and entertained but not too much to take them away from the traders who have, after all, paid for pitches to make money!

The entertainment is conducted outside in the museum grounds as in the past, indoor entertainment has been too loud for the traders to be able to conduct their business effectively. Our only exception to this is a wandering performer which is something quieter and not so distracting.

We do not do talks, panels or ask traders to do workshops or demonstrations teaching people skills. To be honest we are baffled by the idea of a workshop as why would you teach someone how to do what you have spent time thinking up and creating? This will only mean they won't be buying from you if they can make it themselves and could actually end up as your competitor taking your customers from you!

We do not, as a rule, provide evening entertainment ourselves as running the market itself properly takes up so much time. To add evening entertainment would simply be a step too far, potentially detract from the performance of the core activity and lessen the amount available to be spent by our customers the following day. 

We may, on occasion, have entertainment of some sort (such as a ghost hunt) run by friends who have a paranormal company which would be on the same weekend in the same area which we cross-promote. If a particular steampunk performer is available to be with us at the market as a guest we are happy to set up a gig for them that same evening if someone else can run the door for them or join forces with somewhere else to host it. 

We have organised other entertainment/social days separate to the markets in the past such as Professor Elemental, Montague Jacques Fromage, a steampunk film event and a day trip to Sunbridge Wells. There just aren’t enough days in a week to fit in everything we’d like to do!

You can use your pitch to sell your ready made designs, if you do commission orders only you can showcase your work and obtain more orders or just use your space as a networking platform. On the day you are supplied with a trader pass to wear which will gain you discounted prices with our hot food trader/s, our pub vendors and in the cafe. 

We also offer exisiting traders the chance to be on the priority list to rebook for the events that follow.

If your first reaction is "yikes, I'm not travelling that far" do stop and think about how many brand new customers you are going to find if you have previously stuck to a certain area closer to home. It's well worth the journey as you will likely end up with a bunch of commissions to keep you busy for the next six months as well!

Of course not – we all need a life outside of steampunk! We know our regular traders are not always available to be with us at every single event. 

If you are unavailable for an event you have been invited to, please reply to it anyway to let us know. Please do ensure you have our email address in your white list/contacts so that future emails don’t end up in your spam/trash/bin by mistake.

Again, ensure you have our email address in your white list/contacts so that emails don’t end up in your spam/trash/bin by mistake. If you still can’t see an invitation, just drop us an email as our database is so big, it takes a while to get to everyone so it really is nothing personal! Also keep us informed if you have changed your email in case we are sending invitations to a now defunct email address, especially if you had a website which no longer exists due to rebranding for example. Ideally, plan your diary well in advance, let us know which dates take your fancy and it will be noted. That way, you’ll be in the first batch sent out. An announcement will appear on the Facebook group and page when emails have been sent so you will know to look in your inbox.

If you would prefer not to be sent invitations to trade, please drop an email across with just “unsubscribe” in the body of the email. A brief note explaining your reasons is considered courteous (moved away, no longer doing steampunk, etc). Your details will then be removed from the "to email" database so you will no longer be emailed. If, however, you do find yourself in a position where you would like to join us sometime, just email us.

All traders need to have their own PLI. It's part of my own PLI's T&Cs as an event organiser that all my traders carry their own PLI otherwise it renders my own invalid. There are places that do PLI for just the day if you want to give events a try that way. I would advise caution if you trade anywhere else that says you don't need it unless if they have a huge policy that allows the organiser's PLI to cover all the traders as well. (If they don't ask for PLI from you, then it would be quite likely that they don't have PLI of their own nor relevant licences).

We are now starting to ask for risk assessments for your stall - not hard to do, there is a template on here to use.

We can supply tables at no extra charge. Some venues have some of their own, some have none at all so we hire them in. If you do have your own is a help, plus you can buy folding ones which are bigger than the standard 2x6ft, often 2'6" x 6' which gives you a bit more space obviously. We do not supply rails!

Please have a read of the different sections of the website (particularly Everything For Traders tab) as all information is covered such as:

My stuff isn’t really steampunk, can I still trade? (Yes is the answer!)

What sort of thing are you looking for in traders?

Do I have to apply to be even considered as a trader?

How do I get in touch about trading?

What sort of footfall can I expect?

How widely is the event advertised?

This event was started in October 2011 which was set up by Doctor Geof and held at Leftbank on Cardigan Road. 

I got asked to help co-ordinate a second one for March 2012 and dealt with everything myself, including setting up a London Steampunk Market (from Leeds!) which was scheduled for only five weeks later.

In August 2012, I was contacted by Leeds Central Library to organise a literary event as there were a lot of steampunk fantasy/horror authors coming to light. This had a small bespoke selection of traders along with five authors doing talks, readings and Q&A sessions.

Then in October 2012 I made LSM a two-day event due to the volume of traders forming an orderly queue keen to be a part of it. 

I continued doing the posters from March 2013 using Geof's artwork as a template as he was too busy with his comic deadlines and the like to be able to do them anymore. This was the last time it was at Leftbank as I wanted to do more with it rather than it being just a market in a building and give something more back to the community. Therefore it is now held in museums and places of interest that need our support.

The logo you see on all Leeds Steampunk Market publicity is a design that Si and I started working on before the Summer Market at Thwaite at the end of June 2015. It came about through a variety of reasons; it combines the spread wings of the Captain Cumberpatch brand, the steampunk gearwheel of LSM and my love of owls which is why my HooDoo brand is an owl. Plus, we now have a real-life owl as a mascot in the form of our steampunk bird of prey display champions flown at most of our events by Amy Jo Lawrence's "Flying Squadron". 

Geof designed the original artwork for LSM but he agreed that LSM has grown and evolved and is now different. The change of logo allows Geof to reuse the artwork he created for his own commercial activities.

It has been me doing all the work in the background on everything since the second LSM and my husband helps with social networking on the run up to the event itself. Geof is not part of the running of LSM anymore but he is always welcome at our LSM whenever his diary and deadlines allow him to.