WGT 2017

Disclaimer: This post may contain advertisement. I did not get paid or commissioned to write this, but as I am talking about my friends, designers and an event and tagged their pages it may have an unintended advertising effect. 

Hi everyone!

A few weeks ago I visited the WGT festival in Leipzig. For those of you who don't know it: Wave Gotic Treffen is the biggest gothic festival in Europe (or even the whole world) and it takes place in the east of Germany each year. I love it for several reasons:
It is super long - we always travel there on thursday and drive back home on monday. So that means we have up to 5 days to meet so many friends! I have a very good friend living in Leipzig and one reason why I love going there is to meet her again!
Another thing about WGT: it is super big! The whole city turns black. There are events happening all over the city and it is not just a music festival with lots of concerts but there also are lots of other events like parties, picnics, markets, exhibitions and so much more.

So as always, Aurelia Isabella and I packed our bags and drove there on thursday. I created two new dresses for the festival and I also got something extra special from Lyris Design! I don't have many proper photos of my dresses yet but I just wanted to show you the ones that I already have and tell you a bit about what we did :)

Friday

Friday is always my favourite day because we go to the Victorian Picnic at Clara-Zetkin-Park. Basically, it is a free event outside in a huge park and everyone can come, but best would be if you'd come in a historical / elegant / gothic costume. My costumes obviously are not that historical, but everyone always dresses up in the most beautiful outfits that they brought for the festival. This year my dress was the custom-made vampiric corset gown that Lyris Design created for me! My matching necklace is from Noir Romantique :)

Left photo: dds Fototreff - right photo: Sven Weyer Photography

My dress: Lyris Design - My necklace: Noir Romantique

I love the picnic because I always get to meet so many friends and other amazing people and I really love watching all the wonderful costumes, but what I honestly don't like are all the paparazzi. It is getting worse every year: if you are wearing a cool costume it is almost impossible to talk to your friends, eat something or make a phone call without someone taking photos of it (or asking you to stop talking and put the phone away so they can take a better photo).
I am used to being photographed (and I always appreciate it if people ask before and send me the photos afterwards, which almost never happens here), but this year it was honestly too much for my taste. Imagine there was a woman surrounding our group for like ten minutes, photographing us from all angles, coming super close and not stopping even when we asked her to - she just completely ignored the fact that we were talking to her... We went pretty far to the back of the park so most of them would leave us alone, but unfortunately the consequence was that we didn't meet that many friends. So as an advice for people who want to come just to watch and take some photos: please respect the people there, as we all come there to have fun, not to please photographers we don't know. The fact that we wear pretty costumes does not mean we want to be photographed all day long and have to stop doing our stuff so others can take a picture, it means we just enjoy to dress up and hang out with a company that appreciates cool costumes (e.g., other costumed people, not the photographers that have nothing to do with the scene and that never send us the photos they take). It is always nicer to ask and usually we are happy to strike a pose for you, but we all hate these photos that you catch while we are eating or talking on the phone. It can also happen that someone says no and that is absolutely okay, they have the right to do it even if they wear a pretty dress.
Anyway, we had a lot of fun and it was a really great day! I don't want to lament about it but I guess it would be more fun if more photographers would think about it ;)

Who needs enemies when you can have friends like us <3

Left to right: Miss Morgue, Damaris, Hanny Honeymoon, Jumeria, Aurelia Isabella & me :)

That moment when Jumeria looks like Van Helsing in her new sunglasses but you just look like Ozzy Osbourne. A bit disappointing :D

Later we went to the Agra Hall - something like the main festival area with a lot of food, concerts and the big shopping hall. Many designers I worked with have booths there and I always enjoy hanging out with them and doing some shopping myself!

Left to right: Me - Margot - Miss Morgue - Jael Miro - Aurelia Isabella <3

And as pretty as corsets are and as much as I love wearing them, after a long day it is also nice to just wear something comfy and hang out without always taking care of your dress :D

Saturday

At first we went to the medieval market, later we saw some concerts and spent some more time at the Agra. I always love these markets so much, we definitely don't have enough of them here in the north of the country!

My new self-made dress! Perfectly matching moth necklace by Lilif Ilane Creations <3

Fancy text on the photo because I saved it from my IG stoy :D

From left to right: me - Valentin Winter - Jumeria - Hanny Honeymoon - Aurelia Isabella

Cocktail Time!

 

Sunday

My friend Lilif Ilane had an exhibition / a shop with her cute moth- and butterfly necklaces at another place in the city, so we drove there to hang out with her first thing in the morning. I even got a cute new necklace that matched the butterfly pattern of my dress! Later we went to the Agra area again and I also met Annie Bertram who took some photos of us :)

Finishing my dress super last minute, in my pajama pants.
aka "Who needs to overlock when you can just burn it all off?"

Dress & hair crown made by me, jewellery by Alchemy Gothic

Quick photo shoot with Annie Bertram!

Photo by Annie Bertram <3

Aurelia got fangs from Father Sebastiaan! His lovely assistant Eve is on the left <3

Meet my alter ego El Esmeraldo :D

Monday

Monday is always the comfy day! I wore one of my favourite dresses by Corvus Corone and we basically just went to the Agra area to eat a lot of stuff and do some more shopping before driving home :)

Some healthy Breakfast :D

I was also hanging out at the entrance doors, wearing something pretty made by Isabeau Ouvert!

Bye bye WGT! See you all next year!

 Some more photos that I almost forgot!

With Aurelia Isabella, photographed by Annie Bertram

All the pretty corsets by some of the most talented designers: Lyris Design, Royal Black & V-Couture!

With the cutie Katrin!

With the lovely S-T-A-R-Gazer!