THE BYRON SHIRE
Byron Bay
Volume 25 #09 Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Writers Festival
Mullumbimby 02 6684 1777 Byron Bay 02 6685 5222 Fax 02 6684 1719 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au www.echo.net.au 21,000 copies every week
PROGRAM LIFTOUT IN CENTRE PAGES
B A B Y B O O M R E I G N O F F I C I A L LY O V E R
No warning of Woolies fencing say neighbours
Changing guard at writers fest
Hans Lovejoy
Incoming Byron Bay Writers Festival director Candida Baker with current director Jeni Caffin. Photo Jeff ‘festing ideals’ Dawson Victoria Cosford
Director Jeni Caffin likens running the Byron Bay Writers Festival to being ‘given this big toy – nobody artistically has said put the brakes on.’ As this is her fourth and final Festival, this should give punters attending a clue to expect the unexpected. Now in its fourteenth year, the annual Writers Festival will run from Friday August 6 through to Sunday August 8 and has as its motto ‘Words Without Walls’. The program is an eclectic, exciting mix of marquee sessions and workshops, book launches, foodie and feature events. ‘(It’s) a happy blend’, according to Jeni, ‘a mix of fiction, prose, comedy, play, non-fiction.’ She told The Echo that ‘I think that’s what distinguishes this Festival from other ones is the way we
mix things up. It’s rare in other festivals for, say, a film-maker to talk to a blogger who is talking to a writer. It’s interesting to see what happens when you do mix things up!’ The Festival is returning this year to its original stamping ground at the North Beach site. ‘We’re on familiar turf,’ Jeni said, ‘and fairly hallowed turf as far as the Festival is concerned. It’s back to the future – back on that ground but with everything new.’ There will be five big marquees with the Launch Pad more accessible than in previous years. Several new venues have been incorporated this year, including the Buddha Bar and breakfasts at St Elmo’s. ‘It’s always been my belief that the Festival belongs to the town so should be shared among the town and new businesses’, Jeni told The Echo. And if it pours with rain as it so catastrophically did two years ago? ‘The ground
is in much better shape than it was then’, she said, ‘besides, it’s in the nature of the Festival and whatever happens it will go ahead.’ As far as stepping down from her position as Director is concerned: ‘It’s an odd mix of feelings that I have’, Jeni said, ‘On the one hand I’m feeling so enlivened because I think this is such a great program, (but) I feel a slight sadness about stepping away. This world that’s consumed me for four years, it’s more than a job, it’s been a big part of my life for as long as I’ve been out of Sydney. My world has been confined to a 33-metre space in the heart of Byron Bay and to this team of people – I feel jealous of the fact someone else will be sitting in this chair!’ That someone else is Candida Baker, whose appointment to the position was recently confirmed. Brooklet-
based Candida Baker has been living on the Far North Coast for the last six years. A writer, editor and journalist, she is currently Weekend Editor for the Northern Star and is just about to have a new book published by Allen & Unwin ‘The Wonderful World of Dogs’. While she feels that the current Festival formula is ‘so fantastic already so you don’t necessarily want to mess with it,’ she does have a few ideas up her sleeve. Apart from chairing sessions at this year’s Festival she is ‘hoping to spend as much time as I can down there.’ Furthermore, she told The Echo that ‘it’s not going to rain! I’m talking to the weather gods!’ ‘I feel the Festival is on the cusp of great things and I am handing over a great cultural event,’ says Jeni. It feels strange – but so exciting!’
Woolworth’s fencing perimeter on Station and Tincogan Streets has been in place since mid June, and for those whose business and homes are now surrounded by gates, it appears that little or no warning was given before it was erected. ‘I was given no notice – I came home one day and saw the fence from hell,’ Jane Howard told The Echo. Jane and her young family have lived in their Mullumbimby home for 9 years, and will soon have the supermarket chain directly across the street. ‘I can’t believe that they blocked the town off. From 7am they are making horrible noises… the kids used to play on the streets but not anymore. It’s like a ghetto now.’ Trevor Gardiner, 72, has lived in his home for 25 years, and also lives within a stone’s throw from the construction site. ‘I wasn’t told by Woolies or Council that the fences were going up,’ he told The Echo. Trevor’s main concern is about the proposed bottle shop, which the supermarket is hoping to move from Burringbar Street to the new site. ‘I object to the liquor license having the extension of the grocery trading hours,’ he said. ‘There are four places in town to get grog from already.’ He also says the current supermarket he frequents provides enough for him. ‘I won’t be shopping there (Woolworths),’ he says. ‘Richard at IGA has been really good at getting in anything I ask for, and he carries good stock.’ The Poinciana Cafe’s Keven Oxford says that the fencing is a condition of the original Woolies DA. ‘If we’d taken a closer look at the DA, we would’ve objected more strongly’, he told The Echo. ‘We weren’t explained fully the implications of being fenced in. They initially told us four months but it could be an indeterminate time
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