THE Clunes Booktown festival continues to go from strength to strength, with a world-class lineup of authors and speakers, as well as thousands of books old and new, attracting big crowds.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
While the main festival precinct, including the famous Fraser Street Book Bazaar, was bustling, it was the smaller stalls and garage sales across the town that created a scavenger hunt for book lovers.
About 15,000 people attended across the weekend, with several packed panels - a good size for the small-town festival, according to spokesperson Ali Webb.
"People were coming up and just talking to authors - you probably wouldn't get that at the Sydney Writers' Festival," she said. "The authors were enjoying it as much as the punters."
That's something author Jock Serong definitely agreed with - he said he'd toured the bookshops and had reserved items waiting for him everywhere.
"It would have been the first lit festival I ever went to as an author, and I had an absolute ball, I was desperate to come back," he said.
I'm delighted to be back - it's everything I remembered it to be, it has not disappointed.
- Jack Serong
There were several highlights including commentator Jane Caro on a panel titled Women Writing About Women, and respected writers George Megalogenis and Melanie Cheng, with author and Asylum Seeker Resource Centre founder Kon Karapanagiotidis, discussing Australia's future from a range of angles.
The appeal of the festival, and particularly for city-based people, was that it was something real, but not far away.
"It was gobsmackingly quiet in the hall, everyone was really tuned in," Ms Webb said.
"People are venturing out to the country, out of Melbourne, to find something new - something they can tell their friends about and put on Instagram. They want to be the person who goes away and does things."
She added the success of the festival was part of a movement bringing back the joy of reading.
"The best thing about the festival is hearing these authors and working out how they're framing their novels, and writing for minds of today - people who might not have as much time or running from A to B," she said.
"All the authors were saying print is not dead."