Subculture on vo.rs

Nordic LARP: The Weekend You Become Someone Else

Sat, 16 May 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Whitby Goth Weekend: The Subculture Pilgrimage

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Twice a year a small fishing town on the North Yorkshire coast, population around thirteen thousand, fills up with thousands of people dressed in black velvet, corsetry, top hats, Victorian mourning wear and the occasional set of leathery wings, and the town has gone from tolerating it to depending on it. Whitby Goth Weekend runs every April and every late October, timed to Halloween, and it is Britain’s great subculture pilgrimage — the place a music scene decided to call home.

The Hobbyhorse Championships: Finland's Most Earnest Sport

Sat, 15 Jun 2024 09:00:00 +0000

At a Finnish sports hall you will find a full showjumping arena — poles, rails, a proper course, a judging table, an anxious hush before each round — and the horses are made of fabric and a stick. This is the Finnish Hobbyhorse Championships, and if your first instinct is to laugh, hold that thought, because the athleticism on display will stop you doing it twice.

I cover loud rooms and physical crowds for a living, and I came to hobbyhorsing the way most outsiders do — through a viral clip, ready to smirk. What I found instead was one of the most quietly impressive subcultures in the Nordic region, a homegrown Finnish phenomenon run largely by and for teenage girls, built on real craft, real fitness, and a startling amount of nerve. It deserves to be written about with the same respect I would give any scene that means something to the people inside it.

Illegible on Purpose: The Metal Logo as Gatekeeping

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 09:00:00 +0000