Blue Mountains residents will be among thousands of visitors at the Ironfest celebration held at Lithgow Showground over the Anzac long weekend from April 25 - 27.
Well-known as the ‘festival with a metal edge’, Ironfest involved more than 1000 participants from around the country and overseas, and attracts more than 14,000 people to the Lithgow area.
The theme of this year’s 15th Ironfest is ‘Life on Mars’, exploring the big question of what would you wear if you lived on Mars.
Ironfest celebrates excellence in craft of all kinds, whether it is in metal working, costume making, jousting, jewellery-making or original music making. It brings together artists, designer-makers, blacksmiths, performers of all kinds, musicians, historical re-enactors, machine enthusiasts and hobbyists from around the world, as well as people who love to dress up.
This year, numerous Cosplayers are set to descend on the Lithgow Showground acting out scenes from their favourite movies, television shows and comics.
“The inaugural Ironfest Cosplay competition will take place this year hosted by Lisa Carroll and Kelly Green from the Nerdyheard,” said festival director Macgregor Ross.
“These guys have been coming to Ironfest for the last few years as visitors and were in touch straight after last year’s event suggesting Cosplay could assume a bigger presence than ever. After discussions we decided on a competition which will be decided on authenticity and attention to detail.
“We are really excited by this new event as it will build on the dress-up element that has developed at the festival over the last few years. So we are expecting to host one of the biggest dress-up parties ever seen in this part of the world.”
In addition to dress-up, visitors to Ironfest 2014 can expect the usual events: real jousting on horseback, the Napoleonic era large-scale battle titled ‘The Battle of Lithgow’, an expanded Medieval Village featuring non-stop sword combat, as well as the full-flight birds of prey animal display; an expanded WWII era historical encampment, more than 150 quality stalls, blacksmiths, Bloomfield’s Circus, musicians, dancers, choirs and lots more.
Tickets: Base/gate single day $35 adults, $30 concession, $25 children, $95 families; two-day weekend $55 adults, $45 concession, $35 children, $140 families.
Details and ticket purchases: www.ironfest.net.