Crowds tapping their the 21st century devices chased history through the streets of Beechworth for the annual Ned Kelly Weekend.

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They ambled after a horse-drawn carriage calling out support for the infamous criminal who was captured at Glenrowan in 1880, brought to court at Beechworth and then tried and hanged in Melbourne.

“We love you Ned,” one admirer of the legend shouted, iPhone at the ready as the carriage came to a halt at Beechworth’s historic prison.

“You’ll be right, Ned,” another yelled from the crowd.

But he wasn’t, as children and their parents and grandparents learnt during the recreation of

Kelly’s capture and his sentence for murdering three police officers.

It was a mixed crowd, some sporting blue jeans and Akubra hats while others went for the 19th century look, trouser buttons and all.

After all, zips were a big no-no as the zip fastener wasn’t invented until years after the Kelly era.

But young and old, whether in modern or traditional dress, all carried phones and cameras.

Melbourne sisters Julie Cox and Merinda Dechaineux vehemently upheld the traditional ways.

Wearing buttoned dresses with hooks and drawstring bags looped over arms, they pulled long sleeves over their wristwatches as people requested photos.

“We make our own traditional clothes,” Ms Cox said.

“We try to keep it authentic to bring history alive.

“And it helps us to know what our forefathers would have been wearing,” she added, as her sister pulled her iPhone from her drawstring bag to snap mounted police chase an armed bank robber.