General News
3 March, 2023
Brace yourself for Steampunk
Lady Gaga meets HG Wells in the second coming of Dimboola's interpretation of Victoriana with a time-travelling twist. Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe also will be there - in spirit if not in costume - as the town's streets are bedazzled for a night...
Lady Gaga meets HG Wells in the second coming of Dimboola's interpretation of Victoriana with a time-travelling twist.
Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe also will be there - in spirit if not in costume - as the town's streets are bedazzled for a night of madcap fantasy.
The second Wimmera Steampunk Festival next month aims to blend performance art, music and eccentricity before an audience of thousands gathered in their fantastical finery.
“We’re reimagining Dimboola as a 19th century outpost for time travellers,” said festival director Chan Uoy, owner of the town’s fabled Imaginarium, dedicated to all things whimsical.
“Steampunk is a rich and flexible world where the event is not just a gathering of people, but also a gathering of fanciful stories.
“The town centre will become a playground for strangeness and escapism.”
Steampunk is a growing sub-culture where Sherlock Holmes may stroll arm-in-arm with Doctor Who, and where Queen Victoria may be waiting to catch the Hogwarts Express from platform 9¾.
Up to 5000 visitors are anticipated for the second edition of the town’s surrealistic soiree, which attracted 2500 at its debut last year.
The four-day frolic promises to deliver Dimboola back to the future with a party of the most peculiar proportions.
School children will lead a lantern procession marching to Lady Gaga’s Poker Face performed by the Horsham Rural City Band, street dancers will lead the crowd through the Time Warp, and bands will play between rainbow-illuminated trees and buildings alive with laser projections.
Authors Carol Ryles from Perth and Karen Carlisle from Adelaide will talk about Steampunk world creations and writing for those wishing to dive deeper into the genre.
Bookended by a one-act play, Shuddersome: Tales of Poe, at the renovated Dimboola Star Theatre, and the obligatory post-festivities chillout, the Saturday night street party is the highlight; fuelled in part, perhaps, by the previous night’s gin degustation evening and variety show at the Victorian Railway Institute.
If there are celebrities in attendance, many won’t recognise them behind the crow feather masks and cosplay, although Sydney milliner Neil Grigg, creator of headwear for stage productions of Miss Saigon and Les Miserables, has been drafted in to judge the costumes of the closet escapists.
“Steampunk allows people to let their minds roam,“ said Mr Uoy.
“Last year’s event exceeded all expectations. It totally transformed our once dying little township into a celebration of the weird and the wonderful - and, above all, the welcoming.”
The second Wimmera Steampunk Festival is hosted by the Dimboola Town Committee and Hindmarsh Shire Council from April 20-23.
Tickets for the main street party are available at www.trybooking.com/CEXOV and Shuddersome from www.eventbrite.com.au/e/shuddersome-tales-of-poe
The official program will be available soon, inserted free in an upcoming edition of The Horsham Times.