It’s full steam ahead for this year’s Steampunk Festival.

After a Covid-affected last few years, the King’s Birthday Weekend event (June 2-5) has a packed programme, one of the organisers, Lea Campbell said.

The theme is transported, and fitting in nicely with that theme, tethered hot air balloon rides are on offer at the Ōamaru Harbour on both the Saturday and Sunday. Most of Saturday’s tickets are sold, but tickets for Sunday have just been released, she said.

“With that Sunday . . . there’s some really cool photo opportunities around town, because the train will be running. So there’ll be opportunities for a hot air balloon and train in the same photo in the harbour, kind of thing, which is cool.”

There has been a concerted effort to make the festival more child-friendly this year too, Lea said.

“One of the funniest things about that, is we put on an event called Steampunk Penguin, where you get a soft toy penguin, and we’re going to have some stuff there to help the kids dress the penguin like our little mascot . . . that event sold out in 24 hours, and not one of those tickets was bought by a child!

“So we’re running a second session of that.”

Pedalmania will be set up near the Galley Cafe with a selection of crazy bikes for riding, and House of Bricks is bringing its cog and gear Lego for people to play with.

“The couple that run House of Bricks were recently on TV on New Zealand Lego Masters . . . so we’ve got another Lego Masters couple bringing two trestles worth of Steampunk Lego build.”

It was possible more Lego Masters competitors would come too, she said.

“For us it’s not just about the Lego, it’s the creativity, you know. Getting them interested in cogs and gears and all that kind of stuff - and it’s open to the public, and it’s free.”

The always popular teapot racing has a new section this year, for people just wanting to have a go.

It involves racing remote control “steampunked-up teapots” around an obstacle course. 

“The course has got some really quirky weird stuff in it,” Lea said.

Saturday’s parade will also be worth a look, with extra steampunk vehicles “never before seen in Ōamaru” and a few extra special touches to add to the experience.

The parade begins at 11am from Scotts Brewery carpark, with the best viewing spots at the southern end of Thames St and all around the Victorian precinct, she said.

In the absence of the popular Fire and Steam event from previous years, on Friday night, there will be an opening ceremony instead, followed by a Steampunk street night. 

Formalities will kick off at 5.30pm, and are based loosely on the Ceremony of Keys at the Tower of London.

“We’ve got (Waitaki mayor) Gary Kircher along with our festival ambassadors Helen Jansen (AKA La Falconese) and Ian Clark (Agent Darling), doing that initial ceremony thing, and then the gates will be open,” Lea said. 

Fog machines and lighting will set the scene, like a “foggy old Victorian town”, with food trucks and also live music.

“There’s a whole series of musicians tucked away in windows and doorways - that all have an allocated start time, so they will pop up and they will play and then they’ll disappear, and then someone else will play . . . and that will just be rolling round and round.” 

Lea encouraged families to come along, and wear lights and/or bring lanterns.

Steampunk fans are coming from all over the country, and even Australia, to attend festival, and sales for ticketed events are going well. 

It is great to be back on track after an uncertain few years, Lea said.

“It really is. It’s an incredibly full programme, lots of stuff happening and we’ve reached a point where people can’t do everything.”