There’s no doubt that springtime is also festival time in northern Tasmania. It’s the season when people emerge from hibernation, throw off the winter blues, and prepare to party with a conga line of events that celebrate the rich and varied cultural and sporting opportunities in the state’s north.

Last year spring was characterised by an understandable degree of hesitancy on the part of event planners and audiences due to COVID-19 still being recognised as a major disrupter. But this year event planners have confidently crossed their fingers and prepared full programs, certain they will go ahead albeit with a backup plan in reserve. So at the beginning of October, while the air is still buzzing with words, rhymes and rhythms in the aftermath of the Tasmanian Poetry Festival, lovers of words, books and writers know they won’t have long to wait before the Tamar Valley Writers Festival returns in force from 14 – 17 October.

Originally dubbed the Festival of Golden Words, the inaugural writers’ Festival was conceived as a one-off event. It was the brainchild of northern Tasmanian writer Stephen Dando-Collins and his wife Louise, and it was held in the former mining town of Beaconsfield in March 2014, with support from the West Tamar Council and a lot of enthusiastic volunteers. Although the organisers held their breath and crossed their fingers in respect of support from the community, they had no need to worry. FOGW proved so successful a committee was subsequently formed to enable a second festival to be held. Rebadged as the Tamar Valley Writers Festival the 2016 event was also held in Beaconsfield during March, and it proved equally popular and successful.

An Events Tasmania grant provided greater funding certainty for the next three festivals helping ensure the biennial event’s long-term future as a fixture on Tasmania’s cultural calendar. Following the decision to hold the 2018 event in September, and move it from Beaconsfield to Grindelwald, outgoing Festival president Mary Machen said the goal now was for the Tamar Valley Writers’ Festival to become one of Australia’s premier regional writers’ festivals.

Planning for the 2020 Festival was already well underway when COVID hit. As was the case for so many other festivals and events, the number of unknowns associated with COVID in those first few months of 2020 resulted in the difficult decision to err on the side of caution and cancel the event. With writers confirmed, and travel, accommodation and ticketing arrangements about to be organised, the risk was too great. It was a good call given so many other events, large and small, were forced to do the same during that year.

Mary Machen.

Although she had planned to retire as president after 2020’s event, Machen felt a responsibility towards ensuring the Events Tasmania funding was properly acquitted, and that the TVWF brand would not be lost or diminished. Instead of sitting back and taking an enforced break during 2020 therefore, she ensured the volunteer committee pivoted, and explored other opportunities to keep the brand alive, and to fundraise and prepare the ground for 2022’s event.

“The decision to cancel the 2020 Festival was devastating as anyone who had an event planned during 2020 will know. Events Tasmania was supporting events to stay though, and I knew that the big thing is branding. Once you have developed a good brand you can’t afford to let it slide, so my key object during COVID was maintaining it in the public sphere,” she said.

A number of creative ideas were brainstormed by the committee during 2020. They were to both justify Events Tasmania’s financial support, its faith in the event, and the importance of keeping the TVWF brand in people’s minds. They were ideas that would also allow the event to broaden its reach and engage with a wider audience. One that wasn’t restricted to Tasmania. Mary encouraged the committee to see the pandemic as an opportunity for the Festival to evolve, and to become more than a single weekend at a single Tamar Valley venue that involved panel sessions, workshops and conversations with writers.

One idea that emerged from this time and that proved popular when pandemic precautions eased, and people felt more comfortable about going out, was the series of literary trivia nights that were held at Launceston’s Royal Oak pub. Others included the Pop-Up Word of Mouth Festival held last year at Grindelwald. This was well supported despite being hampered by ongoing COVID restrictions and cancellations, while the podcast series of In Conversation sessions with several Tasmanian writers, and presented by either Launceston writer – and Festival committee member – Lyndon Riggall, or former ABC presenter Annie Warburton, was able to reach audiences beyond Tasmania’s shores.

Although the last two years have undoubtedly been a challenge Mary said a major positive from the pandemic was the opportunity to reset and refresh the Festival’s direction and audience reach, enabling it to involve and include much more of the Tamar Valley than Grindelwald and Beaconsfield.

“I’ve never thought the Tamar Valley started 20kms down the river,” Machen said. “Launceston is the hub of the Tamar Valley with George Town the mouth at the other end. I’ve always wanted to be collegiate and collaborative, and to connect with Launceston. From feedback on social media it’s clear people want that too, and certainly at the moment the fewer barriers there are to holding an event, the better.”

When it comes to venues, Launceston certainly has more of them that are suitable from a COVID-safe perspective, and that are also easily accessible. Venues also need to be large enough to accommodate audience numbers for each session that make them both practical and profitable since events of this kind operate on extremely tight budgets. However, the Festival’s origins have not been forgotten this year with sessions also scheduled for Beaconsfield, Rowella’s Waterton Hall vineyard, as well as various Launceston venues.

Although this year’s Festival will include fewer writers than previously, Mary stressed the program is both full and varied, and for the first time will be linked to a theme. Keen to avoid the relevant, but overworked, ‘resilience’ word, she said the idea for the theme The Good Life was sparked by the launch of landscape designer and ABC Gardening Australia presenter, Hannah Moloney’s book of that name. Her message that joy can come from making the simplest change in one’s life resonated with the TVWF committee, so as well as adopting her book title for the Festival theme Moloney (pictured above, in conversation with Dr Norman Swan)  was also invited to be the Festival’s inaugural ambassador.

“It’s such a good message and Hannah just exudes wellness, happiness and serenity, and a peace that is quite beautiful. She has a huge following and has been an amazing plus for us, as well as keeping us very focussed which has made the writer selection process a lot easier.”

There has never been a lack of interest or enthusiasm from writers wanting to come to the Tamar Valley Writers Festival, and this year was no exception. Several writers that were scheduled to come in 2020 were just as keen to be invited this year, and when they heard the Festival was happening, a lot more writers asked to be considered.

“Writers were very keen. Many writers work in isolation so they were desperate to get out and about, especially if they’d had books released during COVID but weren’t able to go on the circuit to speak about them and talk to people. We’re very fortunate in that our reputation preceded us so the selection process has been difficult.”

One Launceston writer on this year’s program, who has gone from strength to strength since winning the short story competition held as part of the 2016 Festival is Adam Thompson. Since the release in 2021 of his highly acclaimed book ‘Born Into This’, he’s spoken at several writers’ events on the mainland, occasionally joining 2019 Miles Franklin Award winner Melissa Lukashenko on the program.  Melissa was to be one of TVWF’s guest writers in 2020.

“Adam’s a very good advocate for us and always gives credit to the Tamar Valley Writers Festival for giving him the confidence to write. He’d been at two other festivals with Melissa, and told us he’d be part of the 2022 festival if we have Melissa. Melissa meanwhile said she would come if she could chat with Adam! This is what we’d planned to do in 2020 anyway, so we’re pleased it’s going to happen this year.”

Robbie Arnott is another Tasmanian writer whose connection with TVWF goes back to 2016. His involvement in that Festival was as a moderator on one or two panel sessions, but in the wake of the publication of his first novel Flames, the Festival was thrilled to include him on the 2018 program as an award-winning writer of his best-selling and critically-acclaimed novel. The Festival will host the launch of Robbie’s third novel at Waterton Hall on Sunday 16th October.

Steering the Festival through the last two years has been challenging and Mary is more than ready to hand over the reins to somebody new. She took over at a difficult time but during her tenure as president she’s recruited a skilled, capable and enthusiastic committee and leaves the position confident the Festival is on a sound financial footing.

“I feel proud of how my committee members and supporters have got to this stage, and I’m confident in handing over the baton. I’ve given it my all but it’s time for someone with new ideas and energy to take over an event that I believe is special for northern Tasmania, and that’s offered the cultural scene something exciting which is now recognised across Australia. We wouldn’t otherwise have these authors clamouring to come!”

Program details are at https://www.tamarvalleywritersfestival.com.au/2298-2/.

Tickets can be booked through Eventbrite  https://www.eventbrite.com.au/d/australia–launceston/tamar-valley-wrtiers-festival/.

© Anne Layton-Bennett

Disclaimer: Anne was a Tamar Valley Writers Festival committee member from 2014-2020, and was Vice-President from 2018-2020.

Anne Layton-Bennett is a published writer both in Australia and overseas in both print and online publications. She writes regularly for specialist magazine The Veterinarian, and co-edited: An Inspired Pursuit: 40 years of writing by women in northern Tasmania, (Karuda Press) 2002.