TROY — The Enchanted City steampunk-themed festival, usually held on an early-autumn Saturday in Troy, might move to another location if organizers cannot resolve issues of money and logistics.

At the core of the dispute is the steep reduction of the event's budget from $10,000 to $5,000, said festival founder Susan Dunckel. “But it doesn’t mean that there isn’t another downtown somewhere that feels enchanted, and would love to have 8,000 to 10,000 people visit,” she said.

On Tuesday, Dunckel posted an announcement on the official Enchanted City Facebook page saying organizers were "unable to secure a deal" for Troy this year and would be “bringing our festival to a new Enchanted City location in the future.”

The post sparked the City of Troy to issue a statement on Wednesday saying festival organizers had approached the Capital Resource Corporation for financial assistance.

“Unfortunately, the funding request exceeded the local authority’s giving capacity,” the city's post said. “The CRC’s legal requirements for funding have been communicated to organizers, and we hope to find an outcome that benefits the festival and city, and ensures the event can remain in the Collar City.”

Beyond money, also at issue are timing and space on Saturdays already packed with several thousand pedestrians at the Troy Waterfront Farmers Market, Dunckel said. Moving the festival away from that bustle to a park would separate the festival from sponsoring businesses that benefit from the foot traffic. Moving it to a Sunday would be similarly problematic for the many steampunk aficionados flying in from other parts of the country who need to be back at work the following day.

For that same reason, Dunckel said she heard from many in the steampunk community requesting festival details, which prompted her to publish the Facebook post.

“It’s tough," she said. "People travel from California, they travel from Pennsylvania, and they travel from Ohio – and they need to make travel plans. ... I kept getting emails.”

With a history steeped in 19th-Century industry, Troy is a natural fit for steampunk, a literary and fashion aesthetic that blends the Victorian era with science fiction.

Dunckel created the Enchanted City festival in 2014 “thinking it would attract 1,000 people, and that would be great. And so, through the years, to my surprise — and to the city’s surprise – it just grew and grew and grew.”

In the search for a new host city, she said, “We’re open to talking to any downtown that thinks they might be interested in having a festival like this. ... But we have been talking to developers in Schenectady, Glens Falls – and we’ve just begun talking to Lansingburgh. Basically, there are three components that need to be met: location, budget and community partners.”

There’s still a chance that Troy might keep its enchanted status and host the 2019 festival.

“We need to come together as a community and decide what we want to do,” Dunckel said. “ ... What I’m hoping for is that someone in the community will come through, or some other revenue stream will come through, and make up the $5,000 deficit,” she said. “And if that doesn’t happen, I understand, but we’ll have to come up with another location. That’s all. And that’s okay.”