Organisers of Hunter Valley Steamfest have made the decision to change the date of their 2023 event to avoid a clash with the Groovin the Moo music festival.
Initially scheduled for 22 and 23 April, to fit around Easter and the National Historical Machinery Association Rally, the 35th-anniversary Steamfest event will now be held a week later.
Maitland City Council Coordinator, Adam Franks said the decision had been made to ease the impact on the city’s transport network as well as local accommodation and tourism providers.
“Steamfest has had an extended run of bad luck, with a number of cancellations since 2019 due to COVID and significant weather events,” Mr Franks said.
“In 2023, we’ll be celebrating the event’s 35th anniversary, so hosting on the same weekend as another of the city’s largest events would have caused all sorts of challenges for Council, infrastructure providers, local residents, visitors to Maitland and the event organisers over at Groovin the Moo as well.
“This decision hasn’t been made lightly.
“But after discussion and negotiation with Groovin the Moo and Steamfest’s partners, as well as major event, transport and emergency stakeholders, it became clear that it wouldn’t be possible to host both events on the same weekend, without major impact to all event stakeholders.
“Additionally, hosting two of the City’s largest events on the same weekend would have had an impact on our accommodation and tourism operators.
“The shift in dates for Steamfest will help spread the economic impact of both events, which is well into the millions of dollars, over two weekends. We look forward to bringing you more information on Steamfest’s 2023 program in the coming months.”
Steamfest ticket holders who had their tickets rolled over from our 2022 cancellation will be contacted by Council’s ticketing provider in the coming week and will automatically have their tickets changed to the new dates. Ticket holders will also have the option to have their tickets refunded in full. Visit steamfest.com.au for more information.
