The Featherston Booktown Festival is returning for its eighth year, with over 8000 people forecast to flock to the town for a weekend of diverse literary events.
The festival will be the largest ever, boasting 30 booksellers and 101 presenters across 51 events from May 12 until May 14.
There will be dozens of book-related presentations and workshops covering writing, reading, selling, illustrating, printing, making and publishing.
There will be events about Te Ao Maori [Maori worldview], shipwrecks, poetry, activism, queer art, craft beer, tributes to Katherine Mansfield, spooky late-night stories, and Pasifika tales.
The festival will begin on May 12 with a fish and chip supper and journalist and author Guyon Espiner as a guest speaker, who will also have an event about his new book The Drinking Game.
The rest of the weekend will see talks and events from Maori artist Tame Iti, Hairy Maclary creator Lynley Dodd, former MP Chris Finlayson, filmmaker Gaylene Preston, poet laureate Chris Tse, and more.
Featherston Booktown chairman Peter Biggs said this year’s festival will have something for everyone.
“Diversity and inclusivity is the standout theme to this year’s festival, and the line-up of writing talent really reflects that.”
Tickets are available at eventfinda.co.nz, and the full programme is at www.booktown.org.nz
