Gothic Fest

This weekend is Gothic Fest in Leipzig. It's always held during the week of "Whitsun," or Pentecost, and is the biggest Gothic meeting in the world. Today I had the pleasure of seeing all sorts of abnormal stuff, from serious-looking dudes in top hats with ladies at their arms to girls with shredded black material covering very little to people with lots of piercings, bells on their huge black boots, and pink mohawks.

I decided to see what Gothicism was all about. Apparently, nothing. Their weekend program has a variety of things that seem unrelated--listening to operas, drinking at clubs, city tours, and even a presentation by Gothic Christians. I guess the themes I could find on their website were love, death, morality, and medieval stuff.

I joked with a friend that I bet Gothic Fest isn't on the city's tourism website, but I was wrong, and I was even more surprised to see the electric tram stop signs have been programmed to welcome Gothic visitors beneath the times of arriving trams.