Status active Frequency Annually Years active 5 | Genre Steampunk Location(s) Waltham, MA Inaugurated 2011 | |
Watch City Steampunk Festival, previously known as International Steampunk City and the Watch City Festival, is the oldest annual open-air, indoor/outdoor steampunk festival in the United States and is held in Waltham, Massachusetts. The Watch City Festival invented a new model of science fiction convention in which the larger community was deliberately engaged by holding events and programing in city spaces and local businesses often free to the public. It began in 2011 as a fundraiser by and for the benefit of the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation, which suffered significant flood damage in March 2010.
According to then CRMII Executive Director and first Festival Director Elln Hagny, the event was inspired by the success of two events in 2010: the New England Steampunk Festival and a Steampunk exhibit called "Steampunk: Form & Function," the first Steampunk exhibit featured in a major American museum.
After no event in 2014, 2015 saw the return of the Festival, now called the Watch City Steampunk Festival, in May of that year. For the first time the Festival was not run by the CRMII, but was now under the auspices of the Downtown Waltham Partnership, a Waltham-based nonprofit supporting the city’s community.
In addition to that significant change, the 2015 Festival calendar was scaled back slightly to evening events on Friday and the full outdoor festival occurring only on Saturday (previous years had the Festival continuing through until Sunday), allowing for a Sunday rain date in the event of inclement weather. This also marked the first year that the full schedule of daytime festival events were completely free to the public.
The Festival brought in an estimated Saturday attendance of over 10,000 at the 2015 event.
While the programming is typical of a steampunk festival, including art exhibitions, panel discussions on a variety of topics, Steampunk music, crafts workshops, vendors, and performances. unlike many Steampunk events, the Watch City Steampunk Festival makes extensive use of its host city’s public spaces and Waltham’s unique place in the history of American industry. In addition, it fosters interaction with both local businesses and organizations, making it truly a Waltham community event.
The Festival continued in 2016 again with a Friday evening gala on May 6th and main festival day on Saturday, May 7th.