The 2007 strong media component won many first time attendees and provoked intense debate. Emails and letters have flown thick and fast over David Marr’s electric and challenging Opening Lecture. If a Festival Director’s dream is to begin the event with a bang, David certainly rose to the occasion. His Conversation with David Leser was one of the highlights of the program and Sunday’s The Heart of the media session, in which both Davids shared the stage with Fran Kelly and Chris Masters, with Jennifer Byrne in the Chair, drew the biggest audience of any Byron Bay Writers Festival ever.
Literary landmarks were provided by the superlative Gail Jones, by Richard Flanagan, by Robert Dessaix and by Nicolas Rothwell, to name but a few. Nicolas delivered the third Thea Astley lecture, asking Is there landscape in Australia, a piece of writing so extraordinarily beautiful and nuanced that the office has been besieged with requests for transcripts of the text. It was notable that among the spellbound audience were many Festival writers. Of such power and intensity was Gail Jones’ dialogue with Susan Wyndham that listeners were moved to comment that Gail is not of the same planet as the rest of us. Her vocabulary and fluency of language is as overwhelming in Conversation as it is on the page. Beyond inspirational, Gail’s sessions were transformative.
Richard Flanagan was delightful, witty and inclusive. Robert Dessaix swept audiences away with a tide of feeling. Grown ups cried. A weekend in the Festival marquees guaranteed the entire gamut of emotions, with enlivening bouts of hysteria every time Bryan Dawe or Charles Firth took centre stage. Laugh out loud: the serious business of being silly was an anarchic and brilliant combination of Charles, Festival favourite Nury Vittachi and brave Shalini Akhil in a panel barely contained by Moya Sayer-Jones. Onlookers were literally clutching their sides, which inevitably split later that night as Bryan Dawe joined the group on stage in People who take the piss. Performance of all kind peppered the program and proved exceptionally popular. NORPA provided a delicious taste of Not Like Beckett featuring fabulous actor Darren Gilshenan, director Julian Louis and Northern Territory playwright Michael Watts in a session free to the general public, who enthusiastically seized the opportunity.
And so the curtain falls on my first Festival as Director: an enormous learning curve, and one on which I was supported by the team that never sleeps and the Committee that is ever committed. After the months of planning and constant 2am jitters, I found moments of great joy and astonishment at the generosity of spirit exhibited by our panellists. A Festival should provide a forum wherein one encounters significant and interesting minds, where one should be challenged, informed and entertained. Join with me in thanking the community of local and visiting writers who have provided indelible memories.
