By Olivia Hartwig
Picture an empty theatre: seats bare, lights low. On stage, a single armchair sits on a red rug, microphone lying next to the water glass on the small table tucked beside it. A spotlight centres on the scene. The theatre doors open, flooding the threshold with light, and the crowd filters in.
Welcome.
The voice speaks with the energy of a writer’s festival. Anticipation, expectation and a dash of inspiration is layered into its tone. The audience buzzes momentarily, then settles in their seats.
Margaret River is home to the largest regional literary festival in WA. Created and produced by Arts Margaret River, it is fast becoming a highlight of the Australian literary calendar – both for lovers of books and their authors. The festival is held across three days, with international authors, major prize winners, local favourites and fresh new voices headlining the programme. It’s a huge event for the arts community, and for the team that works tirelessly to pull it all together.
Five years ago, I ventured into the world of this literary festival as a volunteer – meeting and greeting attendees at the doors. As an aspiring writer with a love of performing arts and community events, it was a perfect combination of my interests. Each year I returned and took on a new volunteer role for those three wonderful days – ticket scanner, microphone handler, usher, room manager… And with every role, I gained another small glimpse of the work behind the scenes. However, thanks to a grant from Regional Arts WA, I was able to officially join the team this year for a whole month, and gain firsthand experience assisting the team to prepare and deliver the 2026 programme.
‘Variety’ might as well be the definition of the Arts event industry. The Readers & Writers Festival is no exception, and while I had some idea of this from volunteering, I was plunged straight into problem solving mode from day one… and I loved it. From the box office to customer enquiries, designing schedules and proofreading scripts, I was lucky to see many sides of the daily work that goes into running an arts venue and a large-scale event.
Festival week itself crept up on us. Despite initial preparation, the final days before an event shine a light into all the cracks and crannies that have yet to be finalised. Tasks become more urgent and more important, while questions are met with more decisiveness as a true deadline looms. We started talking timings, rosters, and setting stages. But it was only when the first authors and presenters began rolling into town that it began feeling real.
Friday, and the festival’s opening events, were looming.
As emcee for the Writers Workshop Room, I was fortunate to open the very first event on Friday morning. Like the other two workshops that day, it was sold out. The crowd was humming and a little nervous – like me, I thought – as I stepped up to the mic and said a few welcoming words. Introducing Heather Rose, I was struck by the sense of community that I felt simply from being in a room full of other readers and writers. People who cared about similar things, and were here this weekend to share in the joy of stories. Any shakiness I had dissipated, and the rest was smooth sailing as I realised that this wasn’t just an audience, but a group of like-minded peers. We all wanted to absorb the atmosphere, and the joint experience of the festival. That continued to ring true throughout the weekend, everywhere I looked.
For me, Friday’s highlight in the workshop room was ‘How to Build a Story World’ with Kate Mildenhall. Not only was Kate a brilliant and engaging speaker, but as a writer of speculative fiction myself, I found her exercises fascinating and extremely relevant to my own writing. Meanwhile, Saturday’s workshop highlight began bright and early at 9am, with Gillian O’Shaughnessy delivering a Flash Fiction Masterclass. I’ve been working on my short story skills a lot this year, and Gillian gave us an array of detail-orientated exercises that I will no doubt find myself using as a reference for my own writing practice.
Every Festival, there is always one session or topic that catches my eye and lands unexpectedly. Saturday also gave us Andrew Sloan’s workshop, based around his recently released book: Why Things Feel F*cked. Not only were participants invited to share their own experiences when dealing with big world events, but we were also encouraged to consider techniques for how we can regulate and recognise those emotional responses. Most of us have experienced the effect of the news cycle on our own mental wellbeing, and Andrew’s session dived into both why we respond this way, and how we can build resilience to counter it. As the Festival’s 2026 theme was around bold conversations and big ideas, this topic felt very relevant.
Sunday marked the final day of the festival, and the last three events in the Writers Workshop Room. Susan Choi lead us through a literary analysis of plot and conflict, discussing different lenses through which writers can create a sense of tension in their work. Regardless of a writer’s genre, this is an essential tool for crafting interesting stories and keeping a reader’s attention, and it was fantastic to gain an insight into how an accomplished author and creative writing teacher like Susan Choi looks critically at different works.
Of course, this was just one area of the festival, and a handful of highlights. On the main theatre stage, there were also interviews and panel discussions. In Busselton, there were breakfasts and book launches, and this year the festival even extended its reach to Perth, hosting events at the State Library of WA. There were many instances where I wished I could have split myself into two or three and sat in on additional events at the same time – however, the festival community pulled through and I was able to hear about different events through the network of amazing volunteers and festival-goers themselves. In fact, the community’s willingness to talk about their experiences has always been one of my favourite things about the Readers and Writers Festival, and this year was no different.
If the pre-festival preparation is the calm before the storm, then the post-festival period is the aftermath of the hurricane. Even as the final session is still coming to a close, the team already has half a mind on what needs to be packed away, and which volunteers are staying to pack up the kitchen, or clear the main theatre. Flags are folded and banners brought down – all before the day is out.
The following days are filled with all the smaller jobs: returning equipment and promotional banners to sponsors; taking out the rubbish; collecting lanyards. And the larger jobs: reorganising the storeroom ready for the next year or collating feedback while it’s still fresh. But even though one festival is over, the keen minds of Arts Margaret River are already thinking about next year – already contacting authors and publishers, or building lists of topics, workshops and venues.
A festival of this scale, especially one that runs smoothly and holds this much passion and creativity, isn’t constructed overnight… or even the month prior. It’s a labour of love, strong work ethic and combined teamwork over a whole twelve months. And of course, none of it would be possible without the support of the volunteers either. So, to the whole festival team – thank you for the experience this year, and all the years before.
See you at the next one!
Images: Daniela Tommasi, Emma Jones & Christopher Young
Arts Margaret River hosted Olivia Hartwig as part of her Regional Arts WA Next Level Arts Worker Fellowship, a program designed to ignite the careers of young regional arts professionals and build the next generation of creative leaders.