Whitby Goth Weekend

The time has come, once again, to assemble the curios of Sock Horror and begin the pilgrimage to Whitby and the Gothic Festival, and what a treat we have in store for you.

This year, as previously the Sock Horror carnival will be in the Leisure center on Whitby west cliff from 10 to 5 on both Friday and Saturday (25th and 26th April). Please do come along and pay us a visit.....we have a very special iron in the fire that will hopefully give you something to gawp at and probably leave me very tounge tied with flushed cheeks (if everything falls in to place).

I know a good few of you will be making your way to the festival so please feel free to come along and introduce yourself*. For those of you that are at a lose end this weekend then I suggest you throw caution to the wind and join the party. Information on the event, including bands, bazaar and the many fringe events can be found here and there are still some tickets available here

I look forward to catching up with all of you and sharing our findings on the fight against Sock Horror.

To all of you that are not able to make it please bear with me as I won't be able to respond to any messages until the 30th April.

Stay safe
Madame Horror

*friends of Doodlemonkie knowing the special hand signal - your packages are ready and waiting

Horrors flaunt brands as scars

I'm so excited by this that I stayed up way past the witching hour several nights in a row to complete the task of branding the Horrors, but we have got there and I'm as pleased as a pig in muck with the results.

After many many moons of hand making colour coordinated neck tags that bear our trade name for each and every Horror we now have custom made swing labels that just look the dogs' bollocks and carry many of the emblems you would associate with Sock Horror. These include our characteristic 'Sock Horror' font, our prized seeker logo and of course a small smattering of blood.

What more could a girl wish for?

Well, these swing labels are more than just an identifier of origin; they are tomes (in the smallest sense of the word) of information - each one helping to describe the world of The Doldrums and the factions in effect there. There are in fact three different versions to collect; focusing on Doldrites, Icons and Gores in turn. No longer should you be bamboozled by the terminology in the descriptions of the Horrors; no more will you have to wonder about their origin and desires.

'Hooray!' I hear you cry.

And it doesn't stop there………with the advent of these ingenious labels there has been a re-mastering of the autopsy toe tags. Where before the simplicity of the toe tag was its virtue and merely stated the creatures' name, the new Autopsy Toe Tag now contains much of the information found in my personal journal as determined in my preliminary examination upon capture of the cretins (all of which is lovingly hand written) and informs you (the collector) of their breed, which faction they belong to, which island and region of The Doldrums they came from and when and where they were found or caught.

In addendum to these original features there are other characteristics that will easily identify a creature as part of the Sock Horror domain;

* The tush tags denoting our web address can only be found on our originals

*The unique eyes with their bold colours and distinctive cross emblem are exclusive to Sock Horror

*And of course where else will you find your favourite creature preserved in a specially made zip up body bag?....well only Sock Horror of course

Why not visit our website and see for yourself the Horrors that flaunt these brands as scars:

Talent Database

I have just this last week listed Sock Horror on the talent database:


 

And much to my delight we have earned a feature!

Please go along and have a browse, show your support to all the great talent you can find there.

A Gothic Family Holiday

Me and my husband are now seasoned veterans of Whitby Gothic Weekend. We have been going since our university days; in fact i think this will be our eleventh year and many of those we made the pilgrimage in both April and October.

I hear you cry 'how can a festival hold that much interest? Are you not bored after going to the same place so many times?' and to you I give an understanding nod and know that you have never been.

The home of Bram Stoker' Dracula at Halloween.........how on earth could be not fall in love with the place when it is completely overtaken by alternative types? The whole town embraces the festival and strings bats and spiders from every possible inch of space and even the second-hand shops tailor their window displays to show off their black velvet dresses, top hats and cravats; pubs advertise snakebites and restaurants change their menu descriptions to reflect the darker side of the palette. Besides all that it's the archetypal quaint fishing village with cobbles streets and shambles, but for miles around the most dominating feature of Whitby is the ruins of the Abbey perched on the top of West Cliff gazing out to sea.

But mainly we go to catch up with our mates, the people we only get to see at these events. Friends we made at university who moved on to live their lives in different towns. It's a great excuse to rent a large cottage on a cobbles street at the foot of the steps to Whitby Abbey, stay up all night catching up on each others escapades and behaving like we never left the place.

In recent events I have taken Sock Horror along and set up stall at the magnificent bazaar - as I am doing this time, and have had just as much fun educating people in the world of The Doldrums and the lore of lost socks.

This year however will be a new experience for several reasons. For the first time in many years we are descending on Whitby with depleted numbers; instead of the customary 12 or 14 of us that go as a group there will only be 4. I wonder how this will change our enjoyment of the event. But perhaps more notable is that it's going to be a real family event. When I say this I do not mean there is a miniature Madame Horror or Uncle Roblin for us to take along, quite the opposite.......we are going with Uncle Roblins' parents...........

They are not Goths. The whole thing passed them but without so much as a whisper, yet here they are throwing themselves into the preparations with such vigour I'm in awe. Gone is the curly blond hair to be replaces with a sleek razor edged style shot with pillar box red streaks. For months they have been trawling the country for unique items of clothing as only befits Gothic gentry (for the Internet is not their forte) and have deliberated over the perfect skirt shape to sit on the crinoline purchased last month and mused over whether a lace or ruffle parasol would finish the outfit more definitively. Morning suits have been specially tailored, pocket watches purchased and even armour rings bearing pentagrams have been chosen to adorn their fingers. In truth they are going to be more prepared for the coming event than we who have wardrobes full of Gothic couture and nothing to wear.

Is it right that you can be upstages by your in-laws in a lifestyle you have been carving yourself for so long? Oh I'm in no doubt that we will have fun; there is many a weekend we sit up chatting till 5 in the morning, but still I have the sneaky suspicion I will feel like a parent opening a new world to two impressionable teenagers.

I'll let you know how it goes.