The first thing I have to say is the NYWF was awesome, and everyone should go next year. The second thing I have to say is that respiratory illnesses are much less awesome, especially when they hit two days after returning. I seem to have come down with a probably-not-flu-flu-like viral infection, and although I’m no longer aching everywhere, I am still feeling massively fatigued all the time, which sucks. I suppose I can only be thankful it happened *after* the festival. I thought I was being careful and taking care of myself so this wouldn’t happen, but well, that’s a story for another day.
The NYWF happens every year in Newcastle-Newy, as it is affectionately known-and This is Not Art (TiNA), the umbrella festival of which NYWF is a part, has become Newcastle’s biggest tourism weekend. In the words of one person I spoke to on Grindr, the ‘influx of hot gay men’ over the festival weekend is something to look forward to.
It was a rainy Wednesday afternoon, and I was a NYWF virgin. My flight was delayed and when I finally rocked into Newcastle airport, the first thing I noticed was how…regional it was. I guess the first thing that struck me was the feeling that I was about as far away from a major city in Australia as I’ve ever been, and this was the very first time I’d been out somewhere like there as an openly gay man, and visions of homophobic, possibly racist, rednecks swarming along on utes filled my brain. And then I put those thoughts aside, collected my luggage and went in search of the bus to town.
Eventually, I found myself outside my hotel, the Newcastle Ibis, which was a little further from the festival locations than I really would have liked, but on the upside, it was a room for myself, which I wasn’t sharing with another four artists. Not that I have anything against other artists, mind you, but there are considerations–like snoring, smelly feet, and enough space for me to pull out my laptop and get some work and social networking done. Yes, I’m a bit paranoid about my computers at times. Go figure.
In any case, I spent the first afternoon wandering around Newy and trying to find out where all the festival venues were. In doing so I also discovered something I’d forgotten about smaller town Australia-everything shuts early. And when I mean early I mean by 5 PM. And when I mean everything, I mean everything. It then mostly doesn’t open on the weekends…or public holidays, as Monday was in New South Wales. At times I feel like I spent the entire weekend trying to find somewhere to eat that was open.
Thursday was a nice, slow easing into the whole Festival scene, with an Artist Meet & Greet, and then the TiNA launch party. I started Friday . . . → Read More: National Young Writers Festival–Or What I did last Weekend
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