'Fin', or something else equally as pretentious.

This blog feels unfinished, so here’s the last entry. I just felt like this entire thing needed some kind of tangible end. The BWF has been over for months, but those months have given me the time to properly reflect on it. I went into the festival feeling like I wasn’t expecting much, but looking back, I don’t think that’s entirely correct. In actual fact, I think I went into the festival with preconceived ideas of what a festival consisted of. The only writers festival I’d experienced before was the Melbourne Writers Festival, which was very different. The MWF is spread out because of the amount of participants involved, but the BWF took place over the course of a weekend.

When I was attending the festival I didn’t really feel like I was making it to enough sessions, but by the time it was all over I felt exhausted; a sure sign that I’d dragged myself to session after session after session. I tried to pick a variety of sessions and events to attend, and now that’s it’s all done and dusted, I can highlight two sessions that really stood out. One was the ‘Talk right, speak better’, session (which my group actually gave an award). It was just the right mix of funny and engaging, and I actually felt like I was being talked to, instead of being talked at. The second was the ‘Deep and meaningful’ session which took place down in the old mine. I donned my hardhat with a terrified Marney, and we descended into this funny room; the walls still rocky and uneven. It was cold down there, but I don’t think that the songs and bush poetry would have worked if they hadn’t taken place in such a bizarre setting.

More than anything, I found the BWF interesting in unexpected ways.  To be honest, the amount of people who actually signed up to take the subject surprised me. Who knew there were so many people who were actually passionate about literature? Who knew there were so many people passionate about writing? This blog has come to an end, but that memory of the festival as a place that brings people together will remain.