Time Traveler’s Circus

Jenn Cohen | September 6, 2012 | 0 Comments

by Kingmi Baby

On Aug. 17, I ventured into the woods just beyond Colorado Springs to find the Time Travelers Circus, a fantastic steam-punk event hosted on the Happy Ass Ranch. Despite being a total pain in the ass to find, attending the Time Travelers Circus was worth the drive. From the moment I set foot on the grounds, what I saw what was, undoubtedly, a labor of love put on by Cleo Katra and Vagabond Misfits.

The fusion of the modern festival-style stage and food carts, with a good number of crust-punk Victorian looking campers, came together to bring a certain cool factor. Everything was raw, yet elegant, in typical steam-punk fashion. A mix of modern and robotic Victorian, stuck somewhere between two different times from two different parallel universes in the middle of a forest reminiscent of the game Slender.

The grounds were filled with the minimalistic, yet incredibly powerful street-blues sound of Grant Sabin, whose sound reverberated off the hills, and Tango Red Tapestry, a very talented band from Denver; looking a bit like Television, less driven by hard drugs, but with the same presence. The rest of the lineup for Friday included the funky and fun Lipstick Voodoo, the mysterious and enigmatic sounding Hydrogen Skyline and the never disappointing, Silent Still.

Of course, music wasn’t the only thing going on. The fire eater was extremely entertaining, although I couldn’t tell if he was drinking before so he could blow the fire around, or to build up the courage to put scalding hot fire in his mouth. Other activities, such as body painting and fortune telling, helped to add to the mystique and surrealism of this event. The whole thing seemed like a gypsy camp up in the mountains of Colorado.

The Time Travelers Circus is a gem. While it seemed small, there was an obvious amount of love put into it, and everyone seemed happy to be there. I, for one, hope that this happens again next year, and hopefully, it’s a lot easier to find next time.