General News
12 June, 2023
Steampunk hits the heights of approval
Survey results have revealed overwhelmingly high levels of satisfaction among April's Wimmera Steampunk Festival attendees. The Dimboola-based festival was held over four days and was well patronised by people from across not only the region but all...
Survey results have revealed overwhelmingly high levels of satisfaction among April's Wimmera Steampunk Festival attendees.
The Dimboola-based festival was held over four days and was well patronised by people from across not only the region but all of Australia.
Festival "Ringmaster" and the brains behind the event, Chan Uoy, said the whole point of the festival was to bring joy back to the community after Covid.
"Being able to create this event, from a social-experiment point of view, and having it really well received, it's a nice feeling," Mr Uoy said.
"The feedback is helpful for us to use as a guide and get ready to start planning for the 2025 festival."
While the festival will not return for 2024, Mr Uoy said he was already looking forward to the 2025 festival, which would have carnival inspiration.
"A lot of people don't realise it takes a lot of work to pull off an event like this," he said.
"Most people think it's like magic but someone had to make that happen.
"The background stuff is a lot of work – it was almost like a full-time job for me.
"I could see the smiles on people's faces, and even though I was running around like mad, the smiles reminded me that the bigger picture was people enjoying themselves."
Mr Uoy said it was "quite phenomenal" to see the feedback results, which included the postcodes of each survey participant.
"When I saw the map it was quite phenomenal: basically every state and territory in the country was covered, apart from the Northern Territory, so the furthest west was Perth and the furthest north was Toowoomba.
"When you look at the Melbourne metropolitan map, I think every municipality was covered, which is amazing.
"It attracted a lot of first time Steampunk-goers who wanted to experience the genre so it was quite mind-blowing to see where people came from."
Mr Uoy highlighted the need for creative events to continue in the Wimmera region.
"The other feedback I'm getting is that this is probably the most imaginative, creative escapism for the region," he said.
"Small country towns focus on sports, which is really important, but there is a group in the community that aren't interested in sports.
"Therefore, this event is really important to provide a platform for creatives to come out and shine and experience quite a different vibe.
"I think people rejoiced in the fact that there was a platform to let them come out and be creative."
There were 303 responses to the Wimmera Steampunk Festival Evaluation Survey, with 212 people rating their satisfaction as 5/5.
Almost two in every three visitors attended the festival for the first time, with Saturday the most popular day, attended by all but one of the survey participants.
Fifty-eight of those surveyed found out about the festival via word of mouth, with 43.6 per cent finding out via social media.
Forty-two per cent of survey participants visited other towns in the region, or on their way to Dimboola.
The most popular destinations included Horsham, Murtoa, Nhill and Warracknabeal.
Almost half of those who took part in the survey - 47 per cent - lived locally in Dimboola or nearby, with 18 per cent staying two nights.