The Lithgow Ironfest is a historical and cultural event created by Macgregor Ross, a local artist and festival director.
Ironfest was first held in April 2000 to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the birth of steel in Australia, in Lithgow, New South Wales. Snce that time it has taken out numerous cultural, tourism and business awards, and has been acclaimed as a unique regional cultural experience.
It consisted of an exhibition of metal sculpture, paintings and drawings accompanied by blacksmith demonstrations by artist Harry Piers, and metal music by local band, ‘The Mullpigs'. Around 25 artists participated in this first event.
In 2002 and 2003, it was held at the State Mine Museum, before moving in 2004 to its current home at the Lithgow Showground.
Each year, it has grown on average by 20% both in terms of participants and visitors. In 2008 it involved close to 700 participants and attracted over 10,000 visitors. In 2009, it involved slightly more participants and again attracted in excess of 10,000 people.
In 2007 Ironfest was recognized by the NSW government as an event of State significance, recognizing the valuable economic contribution that the event makes to the local Blue Mountains Central West NSW region.
Ironfest celebrates the relationship between humanity & iron, steel and other metals; it is more a series of events combined to make one large event.
The event is more like a series of events all rolled into one main thematic event celebrating the cultural heritage of the Lithgow region.
Two of the most popular regular events are two special largescale historical re-enactment events: The St George's Day International Jousting Tournament and a Napoleonic era battle re-enactment event entitled the 'Battle of Lithgow'.
In 2011 the theme for Ironfest was 'Steampunk' which attracted a large new audience from the inner city suburbs of Sydney.