CLUNES BOOKTOWN FESTIVAL

Celebrating every aspect of storytelling with its biggest program yet

Words by Maxwell Bennett

North of Ballarat, the town of Clunes is opening its doors to the world again for its annual Booktown Festival, just a little earlier in the season than usual.

From Saturday, March 25 to Sunday, March 26, the historic main street will come alive as a spectacular book bazaar right outside in the autumn air, with visits from a wide array of renowned authors, poets, speakers and even musicians, as well as plenty of outdoor fun for kids and grown-ups alike.

Clunes Booktown hopes to celebrate everything that goes into a literary work, from the writing and illustration to the binding, selling, and, of course, sharing, and thus offers books and conversation on almost every topic one can think of. If it can be written about, it will be there.

The 2023 program looks at the many and various ways we tell stories – through books, film, music, theatre, songwriting, photography and other visual arts, even the houses we make. There will be first-hand stories – this year arising out of ageing, small-town crime, imagining other worlds, land management, women’s business, and more.

Guests this year include authors Tony Birch, Candice Fox, CS Pacat, JP Pomare, Eliza Hull, Chris Flynn, Emily Bitto, Emma Viskic, Jacinta Parsons, visual artists and photographers Ponch Hawkes, Hollie Johnson, and Simon Perry, and playwrights Bill Garner and Hannie Rayson, and many more.

These guests will join visitors in a variety of workshops, author talks, and panels to delve into countless fascinating themes, be it romance, small-town crime, speculative fiction, or First Nations perspectives on the environment.

And in the meantime, there’s also live music from the Tin Shed and kids will enjoy the massive maze and many roving street performers.

Clunes Booktown Highlights 2023

Tin Shed Show

For the first time this year, the festival will feature a diverse and vibrant evening of live music from the old Central Garage— a setting some may remember from the film Mad Max. Taking place on Saturday, March 25, visitors will witness a night of live music from Sally Ford and the Idiomatics, The McNaMarr Project, Kee’ahn, David Bridie, and The Footscray Gypsy Orchestra, who all combine music and storytelling to transport listeners to other worlds.

Dark mirrors: visions of tomorrow in Australian speculative fiction

Inspired by climate chaos, dystopian technologies, drone warfare and pandemics, this special pane will see authors Grace Chan, Chris Flynn, Angela Meyer and Else Fitzgerald explore their varied visions of near-future speculative fiction. Ranging from the deeply human to the tragic, dark and downright hilarious, this will be a ride.

There’s just so much crime in small towns

For those whose guilty pleasure is a true crime podcast or Netflix crime documentary, this is a panel discussion for you. Everyone dreams of escaping to the safety and peace of a small country town. But things are not always what they seem. What makes small towns so attractive for crime writers and readers? Jacqui Horwood will quiz Candice Fox, Emma Viskic, Sean Wilson and Vikki Petraitis about big crimes in small towns.

The Books

Well of course this had to be on our highlights: the books! Over the weekend the stunning historic main street of Clunes will be lined with booksellers and collectors. Over seventy specialist book traders will offer an extraordinary range – new and second-hand, antiquarian and contemporary, rare and popular – covering every imaginable topic and theme.

Home grown – fresh local produce

Shining a light on local storytellers, Home Grown – Fresh Local Produce is a panel featuring Leslie Scott, Adrian Elksnis, Julie Kloppenberg and Nadine Crabtree, who will unite to talk about their recently published work on Sunday, March 26. This one is guaranteed to inspire writers, emerging or established!

Workshop: kickstart your novel

If you’re looking to elevate your skills over the weekend, this short course is for those who may not have any writing underway and are seeking a way ‘in’. It touches on the key building blocks of a novel: character, dialogue, setting and plot, and contains many fun exercises designed to inspire new writers to get started with a project.

Festival Weekend Pass

Make the most of the weekend with a festival pass, which gets you Saturday and Sunday entry to the Clunes Booktown Festival precinct, as well as access to all stalls, booksellers, cafes, food trucks, the kid’s village and roving live entertainment. Also, kids under 12 are free!

Clunes

If the author talks, live entertainment and the main street being the biggest bookstore in the country weren’t enough, Clunes also features stunning architecture from the gold rush era, specialty museums and cute cafes to see, truly providing the relaxing literary escape of your dreams.

Clunes Booktown Festival will take place from Saturday, March 25 to Sunday, March 26 2023.