Festival volunteers running out of steam

Otago Daily Times

13-06-2025

Goggle-festooned top hats, leather corsets and ray guns may have had their last hurrah in the steampunk capital of New Zealand.
The volunteers behind Oamaru's five-day Steampunk NZ Festival say they are running out of steam and, without reinforcements, its 16th iteration this month could have been its last.
Steampunk NZ Festival organising committee member Carolyn Lewis said the growing popularity of the festival was evident when talking to crowds in Oamaru's Victorian Precinct at the main parade event, held over King's Birthday Weekend, because many first-timers said they had already booked accommodation to come back as full participants next year.
"I'm left thinking, we're going to need a bigger precinct.
"We're looking at an event which, year-on-year, is getting bigger — 50% more ticket holders this time, not counting the extra people coming to watch, most of whom are from out of town — and a very small core group that actually makes it happen.
"We're all getting old and broken. We're getting to that point when we have to sort of work out how it's sustainable going forward.
"It's two very different things. We've got ticketed events which pay for everything else and then we've got free community events — and that's what costs us.
"It's a big job in the setup and a situation where only people who can take two weeks off work beforehand can do it.
"I don't think people realise how much is out-of-towners coming here, putting the money into the town on the backs of a very few local people who are doing hard yards."
The event does not receive any outside funding from the government or the Waitaki District Council.
The funding that is sometimes labelled for the Steampunk Festival is usually only for promotion, most recently a $10,000 government grant to Tourism Waitaki to promote it.
"It doesn't help us at all," Ms Lewis said. "It's like inviting folks to dinner and expecting someone else to feed them."
Festival chairwoman Lea Campbell said organising the event was getting more complex and tiring.
"Because we do everything.
"We do the admin, and the planning, and the making, and the doing, and the setting up, and we take the tickets, and some of us get up on stage as well, and then we pack down and we clean up afterwards.
"We're now one week post-festival and we're still packing up and we ache.
"I can't do next year the same way."
The festival has also outgrown its storage and workshop underneath an Oamaru funeral home, and a permanent steampunk exhibition space is on the wish list.
The festival's website now features a "come help" message for Oamaru residents.
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