Jonny "Kid" Pilko

I went on the way back up from London (On Friday) and it seemed they had this goth convention thing. Half the people walking around were in black cloaks and capes, with white face powder and eye liner. The scariest thing was most of thr goth people were actaully middle aged baldy men .
I know why this convention was staged (due to Whitby's Dracula links), but having been there before and seeing some, but not many goths in the street. But at least half the people walking around were dressed for this occasion, the full kit and everything.
The question I pose is:
How many middle aged men and women do you think follow the whole goth culture, but in secret (i.e. they don't wear the weird clothes all the time)?
Thankyee. :p

Kolin

annual whitby goth festival.

Kolin

i reckon razor eddie does......

Kain

Bi-annual, I think, there was one in March as well. I'd hardly say it was surprising for anyone who knows anything about the goth scene that a lot of the people there were middle-aged.

Considering the goth music scene started becoming quite popular when these people were young, and the young "goths" at the moment are more likely to listen to bands that are featured in Kerrang every week than any of the bands that actually play at Whitby. The Whitby weekends are generally the biggest specific goth festivals in the country, so the vast majority of people will make an effort to "look the part" when they go. I'd hardly say that counts as being secret goths.

Jonny "Kid" Pilko

What I meant by secret goths is only dressing up for this festival.
If they walked around say, Newcastle town centre in the very elaborate clothes and large number that they did in Whitby, people would have said things.

celtic1

Never walked past The Green next to Eldon Square then?

Jonny "Kid" Pilko

Indeed I have Celtic. You have teenagers dressed in black clothes, some of them with the oversized boots and Matrix coats.
Do you see (m)any middle aged people dressed like that?

Kain

As I said, its fair enough that they only really dress up for this festival (or for other goth gigs, which most of them do). I would guess that many of these middle-aged people have jobs that don't allow them to dress like that.

Then there's the fact that teenagers often wear stuff to look good in front of others, whereas adults are more likely to wear what's comfortable. Imo, huge boots aren't comfortable at all, there's no way I'd wear them just to go shopping in. Not to mention that you see more youngsters around in the streets than adults, due to the adults actually going to pubs and stuff rather than just hanging around a park.

And the most obvious point of all, walking around dressed really over the top as an adult could/would lead to much more than just a few people saying things. As a kid, you can get away with it more easily. And finally, those kind of clothes are really expensive; they are the kind of outfits you only wear on special occasions, such as festivals like that.

Sorry, I just get really confused when people seem to think its strange that the older people who go to these festivals don't dress that way all the time. Seems like such a simple thing to understand to me.

celtic1

Fair point, no you don't. You do see some though (not at The Green tbf, that is/was just full of 13 year old Emos now), and I imagine the high amount in Whitby is due to them coming from all over the country. If they're scattered around the country, you obviously don't see many, but if they're all grouped together in one little seaside town, there seems to be loads.