Opening Night!

After all the time spent waiting, finally, the Shepparton Festival (and the Writers in Action class) was starting.

We met in the courtyard (a newly renovated area) at the Aussie hotel. I walked in, got a drink and looked around trying to identify anyone I might know. I looked toward the wall of boxes from different orchards around the region wondering what it was all about. We later found out that is the work of artist Sean Raferty who is a Cartonographer. In this role, Sean maps Australian fruit cartons to show where different products may originate from (more of his work may be found here http://cartonography.com/).

Anyway, I sat for a few minutes when I saw a few familiar faces approach an excited group of people wearing lanyards that all had the La Trobe logo on them, so over I went.

We were all introduced to each other and seemed eager for the beginning of the festival, we chatted until someone stood on stage and started talking. Many of the people involved in the festival were at the opening night including; event organizers, artists, sponsors, even the Mayor of Shepparton spoke. We heard great things about some of the 40+ events that will be held across the next 17 or so days. 

I'm looking forward to our first classes tomorrow.