Willits Kinetic Carnivale

Chelsea Rule, Kinetic Carnivale Vendor Coordinator (Left) and Lara Eventide, Kinetic Carnivale Event Coordinator (Right)/ Photo credit: Brian Maneely

The spirit of the Handcar Regatta lives on. In Willits.

On Sept. 8 and 9, 2012, the small Mendocino town hosts the Kinetic Carnivale, a two-day celebration of steam-powered contraptions, tightly-laced corsets, post-Burning Man revelry, folk music and interactive exhibits. In addition to railway races and engineering spectacles, the new event will also host a costume ball on Saturday night.

“It’s Regatta 2.0,” said Carnivale event consultant Spring Maxfield, who also co-founded Santa Rosa’s Handcar Regatta. The newly-hatched event, she says, helps fill the void left behind when the Regatta disbanded earlier this year. Despite an estimated 18,000 participants in 2011 and the creation of a sister event in Petaluma, Regatta organizers lost the use of the rail lines in Railroad Square due to SMART construction in 2012. “It’s the answer for all of those people who felt they lost something with the end of the Regatta. This is the continuation,”  said Maxfield.

But don’t expect an exact replica. Willits organizers are leveraging their own historic Skunk Train rail lines and members from Roots of Motive Power, a Mendocino organization dedicated to restoring steam and diesel-powered locomotives and other contraptions. The organization has held “steam-ups” for several years, and will be prominently featured in the Carnivale.

“We’ve turned this into our own even that even goes beyond the Regatta,” said event coordinator Lara Eventide. “We just have the perfect space up here with the railroad tracks. The area has just been calling for this event to happen for a while,” she added. The event is produced by the Mendocino County Museum.

Looky-loos are welcome, but Eventide describes Carnivale as a “full-immersion” event. Costumes are encouraged — from corsets and buggy whips to top hats — in the neo-Edwardian steam punk style. Volunteers and props will add to the interactivity, similar to Renaissance Fair or Dickens Fair, said Eventide. “The entire town has invested themselves in this event,” she added.

Hand car races on take place Saturday and Sunday between dozens of human-powered contraptions that rely as much on creativity as they do on locomotion to get themselves down the tracks. Several teams from Santa Rosa will be competing. The historic Skunk Train will host rides along its 40-mile route throughout the weekend, and entertainers including El Radio Fantastique, The Dirt Floor Band and Luminesque Fire Troupe will perform on Saturday night at the Ball.

The Carnivale Fair in nearby Recreation Grove Park will include art, clothing and food vendors, exotic and odd music performances, family-friendly activities (including Dr. Solar’s Good Time Sunshine Traveling Medicine Show, and the Youth Willits Circus) and workshops (dance, Jedi-training). Admission is $6 for both days, $4 per day, and discounts for youth and seniors.

If you go: Willits Kinetic Carnivale is held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9 and Sunday, Sept. 10 in the area near the Mendocino County Museum, 400 East Commercial St., Willits. Admission to the Carnivale Fair is $6 for both days, $4 per day, and discounts for youth and seniors.The Grand Ball will be held at the Engine House and Museum from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday, and is $25 per person at the door. More details, event times and tickets at kineticcarnivale.com.