The End Within Sight

So onto the final day of the festival we go, the Sunday. At this point my levels of exhaustion from the event were beginning to become more apparent, as I had been fighting a cold during the festival which had been making an already busy weekend even more tiring.

On this particular day I spent almost all of my time in the Old Fire Station, as I had been told to film about three or four events in there that were all in a row. This did make things easier to a degree as I didn’t have to go running from building to building having to go to sessions all over the place. But it still wasn’t a complete walk in the park as explained in my previous post on this blog.

One of the sessions I attended on the Sunday was one about someone surviving the terrible fires which occurred on Black Saturday in Victoria back in 2009. The story he told of how he survived was one that was quite something to hear, it also really enforcing that sometimes we take for granted how lucky we are.

But I think one of my personal favourite sessions which I attended for the whole festival was the ‘Words and Emotion’, which was a session which talked about song writing and how songwriters come up with the lyrics they do. This session had Charles Jenkins and Liz Stringer talked about creating the music they do, also playing a few songs of theirs which were very enjoyable to listen to, showing to me how talented these two artists are, while also giving me an insight into their profession.

So then after attending a few more sessions on Sunday for filming the festival came to a close and the class for Writer’s in Action assembled on the Monday to debrief on the festival. It was also a odd and saddened feeling to meet all of these strangers only a matter of days earlier and work alongside some of them for the program I was a part of, only to say goodbye a handful of days later after one of the busiest and most enjoyable weekends I’ve ever had.

It was one which for me was full of activity, as I went along to a number of the sessions and did hours and hours of filming for the upcoming program centred on the Bendigo Writer’s Festival. The cold I had to deal with during the event did make it harder but I still thoroughly enjoyed the festival and heard some very talented writers and artists talking about all things writing, while also covering a broader range of topics.

Did I enjoy the festival as much as I thought I would? In all honesty I think I had more fun than I thought I would, and I’m certainly glad that I attended it. Hopefully I can try to go to more writer’s festivals in the future to continue improving my writing skills and keep my passion for it alive.