Clunes Booktown Festival (3rd-4th May)

The first of these Booktown events was in 2007. This is the second I have attended. This festival is the only Australian recognised Booktown. There are 8 permanent bookshops in what is essentially a village with well over 50 visiting booksellers coming for the two day festival. It is more than the festival though, because there are author talks throughout the year and an inaugural 3 day Booktown event for kids this year. ( Must check up on that) 

I had a good poke around but other than for the bookshops, books are just presented for sale out of boxes and they're not in alphabetical order so it is hard to find what you're after unless you stumble on it. There are loads of Blytons, Rupert Bears and Biggles on sale, generally for the Gen X nostalgia market. They're bought to put away in bookshelves not read to children so they're expensive. Sometimes you can find something useful such as an abridged version of Captains Courageous, a great version of Robin Hood and some comic versions of Tarzan, Black Beauty and Prince Valiant which I can use. We had a good look around before escaping the rain.

Below are some photos of Clunes that I took while wandering around today.

The old Clunes town hall.

Maze for kids made from hay bales.

ANZAC mural in the town hall

Creek running through Clunes.