The small, rural town of Ōamaru, New Zealand, has become an unlikely world capital for the retro futuristic genre of steampunk.
Over a span of four days each year, a steampunk festival draws thousands of airship captains, Victorian inventors and make-believe aristocrats as they show off costumes and personas they have spent months or even years creating.
The event takes place on a preserved Victorian street in Ōamaru, population 14,000, a town on New Zealand’s South Island that has embraced its designation as a steampunk hub.
Steampunk, a term coined in the 1980s, mixes Victorian aesthetics with science fiction oddity and allows participants to imagine a parallel universe in which the age of steam continued to the present day, fueling invention and discovery. The genre prizes recycled materials and self-made creations, which leads participants to learn sewing and various other crafts and trades so they can produce the finest and strangest outfits they can imagine.
The genre allows for fantastical rewriting of Victorian social conventions, offering a space where anything goes. Brass weapons with children’s ray guns hidden inside, leather hip holsters containing bone china tea cups and saucers and extravagantly tall headpieces are popular.
Eccentric activities at the festival include teapot racing and parasol dueling and a parade of elaborately clothed participants drawing hundreds of spectators.
