Now in its 27th year, the Sydney Writer’s Festival (SWF) has long provided a creative respite but this year, its selection of award-winning wordsmiths is concerned with offering the public an escape from the real world.
To find out quite how the public is looking to escape from the real world through words, and what lessons marketers can learn about their customers from their interactions with books, B&T spoke with Brooke Webb and Ann Mossop, the Sydney Writer’s Festival’s CEO and artistic director.
The festival’s theme this year is ‘Take Me Away’, alluding to the fantastical aspect of the experience of reading a book. But it is also part of a growing trend of escapism seen elsewhere, for instance in movies such as Barbie and Dune.
There is no shortage of things to escape from: a cost-of-living crisis, political polarisation, ongoing wars and an alarming climate crisis. Amid book bans and an attack on freedom of speech, the Sydney Writer’s Festival stands strong as an advocate for “freedom of expression and freedom of speech,” said Webb.
But audiences don’t only want pure escapism, however.
“Romance and fantasy are very popular, but you’re also seeing important nonfiction books being read and consumed with great interest as well. What we’re trying to get at with the theme is both sides of that,” said Mossop.
In particular, the Festival’s strategy has been “a broader conversation,” Webb explained.
Bringing in science, food, and politics, the literary festival is not afraid to delve into areas not directly ‘literary’ related.
At the SWF, the value of literature is in how it can allow readers to envision new ways of doing things. “The first step in finding ways to fix the things that concern us is to imagine how they could be different,” said Mossop.
The event “How to rewrite the history books”, with Bruce Pascoe, David Wengrow, and Anna Clark attests to this. Pascoe, who wrote Dark Emu, reimagined and criticised dominant knowledge systems about Indigenous lifeways, paving the way for further conversations (and further books), an interest that marketers and brands should consider when looking to engage with audiences.
Innovation, creativity and accountability remain at the forefront of audience engagement, whether in books or in advertisements.
Audiences also value frankness, particularly in an age of social media, where filtered lives often overwhelm the unfiltered. The event “Sad Girl? Bad Girl? Mad Girl?” with Australian novelists Nadine J. Cohen, Madeleine Gray, and Jessie Stephens explores the Sad Girl novel, a literary trend responding to a continual increase in mental health issues (across the world).
However, the Festival’s roots remain the same – “the festival has always aspired to be a meeting place for international and Australian writers and to serve a whole diversity of Sydney audiences,” said Mossop.
This year will see a record number of international writers and thinkers, including two Nobel Prize winners, author Abdulrazak Gurnah and scientist Jennifer Doudna, and 2023 Booker Prize recipient Paul Lynch and shortlisted Paul Murray – beloved Irish Paul’s. A diverse array of Australian authors, including three Miles Franklin winners, will celebrate storytelling at the Festival’s 27th year.
There is also plenty of opportunity for brands to get themselves in front of Sydney’s bookworms. In fact, the festival has a number of partners, including ARA Group, the festival’s principal partner, and new partner Canard, a cruise ship company.
“We’re starting to build audiences around the world that connect to the Festival. There’s lots of possibility and potential,” said Webb on the new partnership.
Over the course of the Festival, Hickson House will be operating pop-up gin bars so Festival goers can enjoy everything from classic gin & tonics through to wild rose negronis. Bunnamagoo Wines and Gage Roads Brew Co will also be supplying Festival goers with numerous bars across Carriageworks, Town Hall, and City Recital Hall, where they will be serving wines, beers, and non-alcoholic drinks.
Writers and thinkers will share their stories in both free and ticketed events across a plethora of venues, including Carriageworks, Sydney Town Hall, City Recital Hall, The State Library of NSW and across Greater Sydney and the nation through the live & local streaming program.
The 2024 Sydney Writer’s Festival runs from Monday 20 May until Sunday 26 May.
