Entertainment
2 February, 2025
Festival to lure wordsmiths
A WORLD of literature and local writing prowess is within reach for Douglas’ bookworms with the announcement of the inaugural Douglas Shire Book Festival coming to Mossman and Port Douglas this August.
The dream of hundreds of book lovers in the Douglas Shire of having a festival right at their doorstep has become a reality as the first Douglas Shire Book Festival, aiming to showcase local authors, great market stalls, entertainment, panels and author talks, is coming on August 2 and 3.
Festival president, author and founder of Bowerbird Publishing Crystal Leonardi said this had been a project in the making since 2023.
“2023 was the first year I attended the Cairns Tropical Writers Festival and I came away from it wishing we had an event like that north of Cairns, something closer to home,” she said.
“In 2024, with some Bowerbird authors and friends we said: ‘Wouldn’t it be incredible if we could do something on a smaller scale with just our local authors’, rather than headliners and international authors – which is what CTWF does best – and find a happy middle ground, something relaxed.
“As a small business owner, I wasn’t prepared to fund this brand-new venture myself but I did apply for some funding through grants and we finally received the Douglas Shire RADF grant in August or September of last year.”
The first Douglas Shire Book Festival will take place at the Mossman Community Hall on Saturday, August 2 and at the Port Douglas Community Centre on Sunday, August 3 to make the most of the people coming out of the Mossman and Port Douglas markets.
“We’re hoping to get the extra traffic through the halls before and after the markets. The halls will be filled with market stalls, we’ll have entertainers, food and beverage vans and a very casual and laid-back atmosphere where people can come and speak to the authors,” Ms Leonardi said.
“We will have panels and author talks approximately six for the whole day and we just want to keep it casual and it will be a free event for the community, which is really exciting, because it means people can go on both days and we’re really focusing on local talent.
“We are accepting expressions of interest from authors across Australia, but we ideally would like to keep it Queensland, if not North Queensland authors.
“I can’t reveal yet who are some of the authors coming but what I can tell you is that we’ve been contacted by internationally award-winning authors from our region who don’t enjoy the big festival atmosphere and want to be a part of something local.”
For more information, visit https://bit.ly/4anc9Yu, for expressions of interest email douglasshirebookfestival@gmail.com
Read More: Port Douglas
