Clunes Booktown Festival announces 20th anniversary program

Clunes Booktown Festival has released program details for its 2026 festival, to be held in the main street of the Victorian town of Clunes from 21 to 22 March.

Festival creative director Suzi Cordell said the event, on the the theme of defiance and hope, will include more than 130 books stalls, a kids village, writers workshops, panels on crime writing, speculative fiction, romance, First Nations storytelling, playwriting and historical fiction, as well as free music and entertainment.

“The weekend will be packed with activities including historical walking tours of Clunes, a First Nations night sky dreaming event, the annual poetry slam, free kids village events with the creators of bestselling children’s series Real Pigeons and Oceanforged plus the iconic hay bale maze,” said Cordell.

Among the program guests are Bob Brown, Vikki Petraitis, Fiona Hardy, Marieke Hardy, Sofie Laguna, Jane Sullivan, Toni Jordan, Jock Serong, Darcy Green, Dennis Altman, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Jeanine Leane and Thuy On. Workshops will cover short story writing, self-publishing and writing oral history.

Last year’s festival reported 10,000 visitors, with a record of 135 booksellers in attendance.

This year’s full program is available on its website.

Category: Festivals Local news