General News
20 March, 2023
Books abound at Clunes Booktown festival
Clunes’ famous Booktown festival is set to host one of its biggest weekends in recent history, with an action packed program ensuring this chapter of the annual event has something for everyone. Booktown boasts a tried and true formula in...
Clunes’ famous Booktown festival is set to host one of its biggest weekends in recent history, with an action packed program ensuring this chapter of the annual event has something for everyone.
Booktown boasts a tried and true formula in celebrating all things books and has been doing so since 2017, however this year’s event will be a first in several regards.
Moving forward two months from its usual dates in May to capitalise on the warmer weather, the festival is also expanding its scope to encompass the different avenues of storytelling including film, art, theatre and music.
Creative Clunes CEO Sue Beal said while books will remain at the heart of the festival, a broader look at storytelling was an important step forward for the event.
“We’re having the usual festival which is all about celebrating the book and that’s still at the heart of the festival,” she said.
“While the book is still central to Booktown, we wanted to broaden the lens out to storytelling through a whole range of different skills and crafts.
“We’ve got visual artists, photographers, film makers, theatre writers and songwriters in panels talking about how they’ve used their craft to tell the story.
“This opens the festival up and provides an expanded opportunity for people who want to learn more about different mediums and visual art.”
Booktown will once again see the historic main street of the Clunes township transformed into a book bazaar, with 100 booksellers to line Fraser Street, with a host of authors joining guest panels throughout and plenty of activities for children on offer.
Authors and conversationalists featured in the program include Tony Birch, Aileen Morton Robinson, Jefa Greenaway, Jacinta Parsons, Ponch Hawkes, Sophie Cunningham, Miles Allinson, Emily Bitto,
Emma Viskic, Vikki Petraitis, Jock Serong, Chris Flynn, Nova Wheetman, Nina Kenwood, Alice Boyle, Jan Henderson, Janice Simpson, Candice Fox, Michael Cathcart and Nathan Curnow, among others.
In addition to the author talks there will be a program of art form story crafting conversations with visual artists Simon Perry, Philip Faulks and Deborah Klein, film and television makers Sue Maslin and Fiona Cochrane, theatre makers Bill Garner, Sue Gore and Hannie Rayson, and song-writing with David Bridie and Maylene Slater Burns.
New to the Booktown program will be an evening of live music in the old Central Garage.
Ms Beal said the festival is gearing up to be a big one.
“Last year was our first full festival following the pandemic and it was a bit down on previous years, we had around 11,000 people instead of our normal 15,000,” she said.
“Sales for our panel discussions with authors were also down but this year, some of them are already booked out — our ticket sales are fantastic and it’s giving us a lot of encouragement that the weekend will be a successful one.”
Entry to the festival, which runs this Saturday, March 25 and Sunday, March 26, is $10, with some panel events requiring individual tickets.
The festival is dog friendly, however dogs must be kept on a short lead and guided by an adult.
For more information and to purchase tickets, head to www.clunesbooktown.com.au