Photo courtesy of Stephen Cranby.
Valentina Tansley, Tarrangower Times
Back L-R: Ravenna and Buck.
Photo: Tarrangower Times.
Things in Maldon are looking dark, with the town getting set to host Goldfields Gothic in just over a month’s time. The Goldfields Gothic Festival of Dark Ideas is a new event being staged for the first time this year in an attempt to reinvigorate Maldon after the devastating impact of COVID on the region.
Most residents in town acknowledge that life was pretty tough in the early goldfields, and although Maldon is a beautiful historic place to live now, there are definitely some dark parts to our history. The dark elements of our history were the starting point for the development of the festival – and whilst most of the events don’t literally relate to the history of Maldon itself, the festival team are certainly channelling the dark side with the events on offer.
Photo: Tarrangower Times.
With the festival exploring gruesome tales and mysterious stories, it made sense to use the term gothic in the title, but it seems this has people a little confused. The term gothic can refer to historical architectural styles (think pointed arches and flying buttresses), as well as artistic interpretations, particularly in literature, around the themes of horror, romance, mystery, fear and dread. Fortunately, Maldon has both Gothic Revival architecture and its fair share of gruesome stories!
Photo: Tarrangower Times.
Alongside gothic as an artistic style comes the contemporary Goth subculture, and there are sure to be plenty of goths in town for Goldfields Gothic. Goths are essentially the embodiment of all those gothic influences mentioned above – and they love to explore the dark side in their dress sense and artistic tastes.
The goth movement started in post-punk England, but since then, it’s evolved many times, and during the festival, you’ll see lots of influences in the modern-day goth, from Victoriana to punk to emo to cosplay and everything in between. But one thing is for certain – they will all be wearing a lot of black!
The big question in town is – do they bite? Well, we can’t be sure what people do in their own homes, but we’re pretty sure this bunch of gentle artistic souls will be more interested in having their photographs taken than causing mayhem.
This article appeared in the Tarrangower Times, 3 June 2022.
