What do you get when you combine a World’s Fair with retro-futuristic imagination? The Chicago Steampunk Exposition! For 2025, the convention theme of “The Curse of Cthulhu” will add a dimension of Lovecraftian weird horror.

Throughout the weekend of May 29–June 1, 2025, the Expo will host talks, workshops, activities, and shopping for steampunk enthusiasts who enjoy imagining an alternate World’s Columbian Exposition with Gilded Age gothic adventures. The weekend includes live-action role-playing games; an afternoon tea; an Underground Market for vendors; a Palace of Fine Arts for artists, musicians, and writers; and a Midway Plaisance for organizations and fan groups. Be on the lookout for gas lamps, mermaids, dirigibles, and eldritch horrors as you explore the fantasy fairgrounds.

What monstrosities were on display in Jackson Park during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition? Join us at 1 pm on Saturday May 31 and Sunday June 12 at the Chicago Steampunk Exposition to find out!

Your hosts from worldsfairchicago1893.com will present a (mostly historical) look of some “Giants, Leviathans, and Monstrosities of the 1893 World’s Fair” on Saturday afternoon and again on Sunday afternoon at 1 pm. We invite you to join us on this really BIG tour of the fairgrounds as we explore monstrous machines, a gargantuan gourd, an ominous oven, and tremendous trees.

The Expo will be held at the Hyatt Regency in Schaumburg, Illinois, beginning at 6 pm on Thursday, May 29 and running through 4 pm on Sunday. The full schedule of speakers and exhibitors and information about registration and tickets can be found at chicagosteampunkexpo.com.

“The unconquerable American desire to do things on a bigger scale than anybody else, which often results in our ‘biting off more than we can chew,’ has again run away with us. There are many illustrations of this gnawing hunger at the World’s Fair.” —Scribner’s Magazine 1893