The 2014 Readers and Writers Festival program is finalised and tickets to all events are on sale.
Guests are flying in from around Australia to attend the festival, which will be held at the cultural centre from May 16-18.
The Friday Genealogical Day is already generating a great deal of interest with the inclusion of Who Do You Think You Are author and researcher Linda Emery.
Emery has a particular research interest in pre-1850 Colonial Australian history and has long used family history as a way of illuminating the lives of people who have otherwise left few written records. She has been a member of the research team for the SBS Television series ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ for the past six years, working on a broad range of stories with both Australian and overseas content. She is currently writing Our Boys in Khaki, a social history of the Southern Highlands in World War I to be published in late 2014. Her research will form the basis of the opening exhibition in a new museum space in Berrima NSW in 2015.
The day will also feature talks from the WA Genealogical Society’s Time Trackers Team and the Augusta, Busselton and Margaret River Historical Societies. A free bus will run for pensioners from Augusta, courtesy of a generous donation from the Leeuwin Lions Club.
Festival-goers are able to purchase daily tickets for Friday, Saturday or Sunday, weekend passes or three day passes which entitles them to attend Friday and the entire weekend’s Cultural Centre festival events.
Event coordinator Helen Allan said the three-day pass was excellent value for money as there was a wealth of interesting and challenging presentations on offer this year. She urged people to try something new this year and tackle an experience they might not otherwise have tried.
“If you purchase a three-day pass you can come and go as you like, pick and choose what you want to hear and see, and the pass includes the festival launch, festival closing party, and free morning teas each day,” she said.
“Some people might look at the program and think ‘oh I don’t know that person’ or ‘I’m not interested in this or that’ but the beauty of having such a diversified program, and purchasing a pass to the entire festival, is that you might actually be surprised to find yourself enjoying something you never dreamed of attending. Learning about new people and new ideas, and meeting people from different walks of life, and with different interests, is all part of the festival experience.”
Program and details here- http://www.artsmargaretriver.com/readers-writers-festival-2014-program/
Margaret River Discovery Tours
Sean Blocksidge is the owner operator of the Margaret River Discovery Company, an avid photographer, blogger and South West WA ambassador. In 2010 he won Western Australian Guide of the Year and his tours have been rated the #1 thing to do in Australia on the Tripadvisor website for the past two years.