Jeni Caffin- Director Byron Bay Writers Festival

I was reading nostalgically the Festival wrap up I wrote in 2007, honey coated with the title Basking in the afterglow. Well the twelfth annual Byron Bay Writers Festival was not treated to last year’s balmy weather and the enduring image for me is that of truck after truck of blue gritty gravel being tipped on to our sodden Festival site to create pathways through the mire. It’s practically unheard of for any Festival to be cancelled due to bad weather, but such was our fate on Friday 25 July and yes, I cried. In fact I howled.

Firstly, for purely selfish reasons: a year of work went into fashioning the Festival program and I couldn’t bear the thought of those carefully planned panels and conversations going to waste. Unheard words, unshared thoughts. Secondly, for the writers and Chairs who had prepared with diligence and enthusiasm and for whom festivals provide a welcome opportunity to meet with their readers and peers. Thirdly, for the audience members who travelled to the site despite torrential rain and showed willingness to swim through the deluge to perch upon the freely floating chairs. Fourthly, for the booksellers and food vendors and coffee purveyors who set up regardless and whose businesses suffered. Black Friday indeed: but the hard work put in by the Committee (who handle a shovel to the manner born), the ground staff and the Festival team enabled us to offer the Saturday and Sunday programs on site and intact.

Saturday morning saw a record crowd stamping along our corridors of blue grit and gravel, packing out the newly dried Marquees and occupying chairs now resting on the ground rather than sailing on sudden ponds.

In the words of Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre member Diana Burstall “These were some of the experiences that moved me: The poignant PEN empty chair, seeing Bruce Beresford crack his severe concentrating expression when his turn came to speak, springing to life with fascinating stories about filmmaking, particularly his latest yet-to-be-released work ‘Mao’s Last Dancer’, the enthralling readings from Miriam Margoyles, for whom I stayed in my front row seat in the Macquarie Tent all morning, the throw-away humour of the panels on comedians and comedic writing, the Judith Lucy interview - a laugh-out-loud front row pleasure for me, the excitement of hearing beautiful language in a reading excerpt from Zacharey Jane’s book ‘The Lifeboat’, the soaring exhilaration of chatting to neighbours in amongst book-loving crowds of people. The inspiration to run home and continue writing on my own work. I can’t underestimate how important it is to writers to have this gathering of like minds. It feeds me for another year!”

While Friday was sheer misery, Saturday and Sunday were word-filled joyous days where writers, readers and thinkers laughed, listened and loved. To the flight of blue angel volunteers who lifted us out of the doldrums: bounteous thanks. Gratitude also to my tireless team, now hovering on the brink of a well earned week’s break, the Committee who donned gumboots, raised shovels and shifted gravel and the extraordinary management and staff of the Byron Bay Beach Resort. Indeed you showed true blue grit.

Friday and 3 Day Pass holders to the Byron Bay Writers Festival 2008 will shortly receive by email or by post a letter from the Festival Committee. This letter will detail the offer extended to pass holders in recognition of the disappointment occasioned by the cancellation of Friday's Marquee events.