Whitby Goth Weekend, abbreviated to WGW or nicknamed Whitby, is a twice-yearly music festival for the goth subculture, in Whitby, North Yorkshire, England, …The term “Whitby Goth Weekend” is sometimes used as a generic term to describe events during the week in Whitby as a whole…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitby_Goth_Weekend
video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDOsEsyg6yE
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What I like about this video is that it shows not only people dressed up (goths, historical costumers, cosplayers, etc) but also the swarms of photographers surrounding them and the hordes of tourists – to be fair, it is a tourist town. So it gives you more of a feel of what it’s like to be there, for better or for worse. The Whitby Goth Weekend technically refers to a series of concerts, but this video focuses on the people walking around the street one day that weekend.
FUN FACT: Whitby is apparently mentioned in Dracula and recall that there’s a Dracula Readthrough going on in [email protected]. @[email protected] is posting a section at a time as it occurs on the calendar (because it’s an epistolary novel, mostly letters and diary entries, and it all happens in the space of a couple months, see?) Anyway there’s a bit of a lull so now’s the perfect time to catch up so if you’ve ever wanted to read Dracula, you can read it here.
Not just mentioned, Whitby is a major setting. It’s where the Lucy/Mina stuff has mostly taken place in our readthrough so far.
oooh, good to know!
I assume the Dracula connection is probably part of why the event takes place in Whitby to begin with.
I think the event has gone through three stages.
First it was just a bunch of goth pen-pals getting together and hiring bands. I guess it was more like a convention?
Then they started having more bands, and doing it twice a year. (including at or near Halloween so other folks started dressing up and joining.) So more like a music festival / party?
Finally it became really commercialized, less of a goth thing and more of a way to boost tourism. As far as I can tell, in recent years the music events have only involved cover bands and DJs – it’s more about the marketplace and the local businesses.
So I imagine they each had their take on the Dracula connection. Currently it looks like they push it pretty hard which makes it kind of like a theme park. Like, apparently there’s a plan to make a fake graveyard just for people to take pictures in? The whole thing is a little bit cringe, but it reminds me of something Kurt Cobain said about why they sold Nirvana CDs in Walmart – sometimes a Walmart is all you’ve got.
