Time Travellers' Ball - Karen's Costume Drama

History repeats for this creative couple

- Julie Jacobson

Karen Shaw isn’t a woman who does things by halves. She’s one of the brains behind the annual Time Travellers’ Ball – an immersive extravaganza best described as a cross between a Halloween party, a sci-ficonvention and a Victorian parlour evening – and she’s currently handembroidering a bodice for her fairytale gown.

Although her husband and fellow event organiser Gary is a bit further along with his costume, he’s loath to go into details. All he will reveal is his inspiration is an 18th century highwayman – a far cry from the cyberpunk get-up he wore to the inaugural ball in 2017.

The Featherston-based couple met in the most modern of ways, through a Lord of the Rings chatroom. But it’s their shared love of the historic – both real and imagined – that brought them even closer and turned them into unlikely local heroes.

Featuring anachronistic music, food, costumes and art, the popular event is held on New Zealand’s winter solstice – this year on June 22.

When they’re not party planning, the couple, who are in their mid-30s, are parents to daughters Alethea, seven, and Rosalind, five. They also run a family business started by Karen’s grandfather in the 1940s – making skincare and nutritional products derived from honey.