Clunes Book Town

Clunes Booktown Festival was on May 2 to 3, with 20,000 people expected to attend along with 72 book-traders from across Australia.

For those two days, the old town becomes home to the largest collection of rare, out-of- print, new, small-press publications, second hand and collectable books in Australia.

Visitors can also immerse themselves in a series of talks from some of the nation’s best authors – David Day on Keating; Helen Trinca winner of the PM Literary Awards; Michael Mori and Hwang Sun-mi on fighting against the odds; Stella Prize winner Emily BitTorrent, and others. Also a host of fascinating talks and events  by Federation University including book launches, performances and exhibitions.

This year, there’s an exhibition of commissioned works from internationally acclaimed photographic artists William Yang and Koo Bohnchang In the Spirit of George Rose and a rare chance to purchase their works. After Clunes the exhibition will tour internationally.

And there’s no reason not to take the whole family, with sword-making workshops, a hay bale maze, horse-and-cart rides, Punch and Judy, roaming street performers and a new exhibition: Telling the Anzac Story to Children.