Steampunk festival brings Victorian style and sci-fi oddity to New Zealand town

Steam-powered vehicles, Victorian costumes, and remote-controlled teapots have taken over the New Zealand town of Ōamaru for its annual Steampunk Festival. The festival ran from 29 May to 1 June. The four-day event, now in its 17th year, draws thousands of visitors to one of the world's best-known celebrations of the Victorian-inspired science fiction genre. The town’s annual Steampunk Festival is built around a simple idea: what if steam technology had continued into the modern age? Steampunk imagines an alternative world in which the technology of the Victorian age never faded away, evolving instead into the modern era through steam-powered inventions, brass machinery, and elaborate mechanical design. This year’s theme is “Frontiers of Steam.” Graeme Clark, vice chair of the Ōamaru Whitestone Civic Trust, says, “The theme this year, Frontiers of Steam, is very appropriate considering the looming fuel shortage. Steam power will be the way to travel in the future. As we all know, SPVs, steam-powered vehicles, will be the ‘trump card’ and will dominate world travel and industry.” Rather than recreating the Victorian era exactly as it was, steampunk sets out to try and reimagine it. Participants use its fashions and technologies as a foundation for imagining how the world might look if steam power had continued into the modern age, with plenty of room for invention along the way. Many attendees spend months creating elaborate costumes and props, drawing on skills such as sewing, metalworking, and model-making. The festival attracts people from a wide range of professions, including engineers, artists, farmers, and bricklayers, who use steampunk as a chance to create fictional identities and showcase their work in public. Juliet Thorn, one of those attending the festival, says, “The first time you dress up and go out in public is really scary. And then people get such a buzz out of it. They love it, and they come up, and they go, ‘You look amazing.’ It’s so cool that you take on a different personality.” Steampunk enthusiasts pride themselves on building much of the world themselves. This article was provided by The Associated Press.