Featherston Booktown’s newly-appointed programme director Vanessa-Jayne Hunt. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
Featherston’s celebration for book lovers has drawn more Wairarapa expertise to its festival.
Wairarapa-based Vanessa-Jayne Hunt has been appointed as the new programme director of Featherston Booktown.
The inaugural programme director, Kate Mead, stood down from the role after this year’s festival leaving behind a legacy of three years of successful festivals.
As a successful event manager and publicist, Mrs Hunt has a strong track record in event management.
She has been involved with the organisation of many regional events including Wings over Wairarapa for the past two years.
She has held key roles with the Young Enterprise Trust, the Wairarapa Chamber of Commerce and Toast Martinborough.
Mrs Hunt, who officially took over the role yesterday, said she had a lot of respect for what the team of Featherston Booktown had achieved in a short period.
“I’m excited about the further potential of the festival and am looking forward to working with the Featherston Booktown Trust and the Featherston and South Wairarapa communities to make Featherston Booktown even more successful,” she said.
Interim chairman of the trust, Peter Biggs, said that the trust was delighted that Mrs Hunt had accepted the Featherston Booktown programme director role.
“We are very confident that Vanessa-Jayne will build on the excellent platform established by Kate and the last three Featherston Booktown Festivals, and take the event to another level,” he said
The fourth Featherston Booktown festival will be held from May 11-13 next year.
