First day of the Melbourne Writers Festival is always a hoot and Saturday was no exception. I saw a few sessions, the two sessions with Dave Eggers and Last Chance to Read, which was Cate Kennedy, Nam Lee and Rjurik Davidson talking with Kalinda Ashton about the supposed ‘imminent-extinction’ of the short story. I also went to the Soi 3 modern poets launch and a few parties. I’m booked in to see another session on Tuesday as well.

I really love the MWF and think it’s vital to support these things if you want them to stick around (do I sound like a broken record?), but here are a few comments about the festie that came up for me on Saturday:

Branding & image
I just don’t get the branding of the festival – the pencils and rubbers with little smiley faces are cute but I didn’t understand the campaign. ‘Save pencil’ – I thought this must refer to some event or competition that was taking place over the course of the festival but I actually don’t think it related to any one thing in particular. The whole effect was a little odd.

In the lead-up to the festival I had quite a few non-publishing people ask me what the hell happens at a writers’ festival anyway. A few thought it was all writing workshops and were surprised to hear they could just go along and hear writers talk. I have no idea how a writers festival would convey to people what happens or get new audiences to engage with the program but there’s probably a large number of people out there who would come, if only they knew what it was. The festival is moving to Fed Square next year though, so perhaps that will help bring it to the masses.

Program & booking
The paper program that came with The Age was a little confusing but nothing compared with trying to search the website for what was on. I ended up downloading the program pdf and using that all the time because the online search was frustrating. Similarly, booking sessions through the Malthouse’s online booking system was an absolute nightmare.

Cost
I’m a student so I was paying about $15 for each session I went to, except for the opening night Eggers session. Which is an entirely reasonable price – $15 to see Dave Eggers chat about McSweeney’s for an hour and a half is an absolute bargain, and the Last Chance to Read session was similarly worth it. However, three sessions and the opening night cost me about $70 (plus spending money for books – I only bought one and wanted to buy more) which starts adding up, especially if you factor in food and drink from the Malthouse (quite expensive). Still, that’s not an exorbitant amount and I didn’t feel that going to MWF was financially out of my reach.

But what that price point prohibits me from doing is checking out new ideas and authors. There are loads of things in the program that I would have been interested in attending but couldn’t really afford. Spending $15 to see a bunch of people I admire talk about something I’m interested in is one thing, but then spending another $15 to go to a panel of people I’ve never heard of talking about something that I think I might be interested in is another thing altogether. The MWF does address this somewhat, offering discounts on multiple ticket purchases. I’m not sure if that completely addresses the issue though. Here are a few ideas I had, though I realise some would be difficult to implement and some would be a logistical nightmare:

• Festival pass purchase, like there is for MIFF. Or like there used to be for MIFF more like, those silver and gold passes that allowed you access to every session. Maybe the average festival-goer wouldn’t be into it but people who are in the industry might be – I would.
• A pass that allows you to attend sessions that aren’t sold out, thus encouraging people to book into sessions they really want to see but also giving them the chance to pop into other sessions if they happen to be around and the sessions aren’t full.
• Making the big sessions more expensive (e.g. I would definitely have been happy to pay more to see Dave Eggers on opening night) and some of the smaller panels cheaper. The difficulty here would be who or what constitutes a ‘big’ panel, but maybe it could be a time thing – if all the ‘big name’ sessions were longer, say 1.5 hours, and cost $25 then the hour-long sessions could feasibly be $10 or so.

Panelists
I think it’s great that the volunteers all get festival passes to attend sessions but from what I understand the panelists get a bit overlooked in this regard (although they are paid for their time). I know four people who were hosting panels and none of them had been given festival passes or even comp tickets, though one had thought that she would be getting a double pass.

Venue
The issues with the Malthouse have pretty much been addressed I think, as the festival is moving to Fed Square next year. However, I do like the Malthouse as a venue, because the central space between the two buildings is a great place to hang out. One of the problems I thought with the Emerging Writers’ Festival at the Town Hall earlier this year was that there was no central space and therefore no real sense of a community event; MWF at the Malthouse achieves this really well. Hopefully they will be able to have a similar area at Fed Square next year. I think it’s really important to a festival vibe. (And not at a cafe or a space where you might feel pressured to buy food and drink if you want to hang out.)

Free things
Last year I was surveyed by a vollie and received a free book from MUP, The Park Bench, which I really enjoyed. So I was happy to find that the tradition was back, and this year I bagged a tome from Penguin and a double pass to see a movie. I also like that The Age is available. I spent a very pleasant hour on Saturday sitting in the sun and reading the A2.

Diversity
It’s great that the festival is now doing more than just panel stuff. The Shallow End with Jane Clifton is awesome. I think she’s great, and hilarious, and I could easily sit and listen to her all night. I like the idea of a relaxed central place to hang out in the nights as well, and that it’s free. Plus the new author walks are a fantastic idea and a great way to showcase Melbourne if there’s any out-of-towners around. My thoughts for other stuff that could be done:

• Readings, author open mike. It would be awesome to have a place/session where festival guests are invited to come and read from their books or works in progress. Would work well as a free thing to expose more people to new works and authors, encouraging visitors to ‘discover’ writers and then attend their panels.
• Writing panels. There are a good number of master classes and all-day workshops but how about smaller, one-hour writing sessions where an author talks about a certain technique or style.
• Interactive, fun things. There’s loads of scope to do small, free fun things though it’s often logistically difficult to organise. Why not have postcards that people can write a micro-story or poem onto then stick up somewhere central? Or a competition, like match the line of prose to the book or guess the author quote – it could be updated as the festival goes on.
• Performance. It struck me that there could be some music/spoken word/theatre happening in the central courtyard.

Bookshop
I think a festival bookshop is an absolute necessity and Readings do a great job but I’d also love to see something like the Emerging Writers’ Festival independent press and zine fair – though maybe more about independent presses than zines. A lot of independent publishers aren’t a part of the festival except as attendees, so it would be a great chance for them to find new audiences. Of course, this is heavily biased to the fact that I’d love to attend such a market as a stall holder.

Environment
The festival does its bit for the environment, offering punters a chance to carbon offset their festival attendance when they book their tickets (though not online). I think they were also sponsored by Flexi-car, a car-sharing service, and they do a good line in encouraging people to attend by public transport. Bikes were a bit overlooked though, as there is never enough bike parking at the Malthouse. Bicycle Victoria rent out temporary bike parking which could encourage cycling. At the Sustainability Festival at Fed Square each year there is a ‘bike valet parking’ service, which absolutely rocks. As far as rubbish goes, I could only see one paper recycling bin and didn’t notice any glass/plastic recycling bins which is a bit of a shame.

I certainly don’t want this to be read as criticism of the festival organisers. I know Rosemary Cameron is working incredibly hard to address a lot of these issues already, and is committed to making the MWF more accessible, interesting, diverse and sustainable than it already is.

L.