Organisers, volunteers and sponsors of the 30th anniversary of Hunter Valley Steamfest were applauded this week for contributing to the event which is being hailed as a global success.
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A Maitland council meeting this week heard how the event’s Facebook page received hundreds of thousands of likes and video views, not just from Australian followers but from train enthusiasts around the world.
The Steamfest coverage had more than 68,000 pageviews on The Mercury website and on Facebook It reached another 14000 people.
Steamfest organiser and Maitland councillor Peter Garnham said he was happy with the outcome of the milestone event which included the first ever four-train race and resulted in the number of seats on excursions almost doubling the number sold last year.
Plans are already underway for next year’s event, with one of the highlights tipped as being a five day convoy of traction engines from Wellington to Maitland.