Literature and song lover Bruno Lettieri is inviting all aboard the poetry bus for the 15th Williamstown Literary Festival.
Departing Williamstown Town Hall, a double-decker bus will drive on a mystery tour around the west stopping at several locations for live poetry recitals.
Even the poets – Kristin Henry, Amy Bodossian, Chris Ringrose and Ailsa Piper – don’t know where the bus is going.
“It’s one of the whackiest things I’ve ever done but it works because people are so enchanted by it,” Mr Lettieri said.
“People come along with their picnic hamper and they’re all rugged up, and we say, you’re going to be read to at all these mysterious places.
“We won’t tell you where we’re going, we don’t tell the poets where we’re going.
“We just say, we’re going to let you off the bus a few times, have your glass of wine or your mulled wine ready, and people have a picnic and they share food as well.
“It takes about three hours, we do about three stops, we sometimes sing on the bus, sometimes the poets recite as the bus is moving along.
“We’d find these little obscure places, but always looking over the water has been a big theme over the six or seven times we’ve run it.”
The poetry bus departs on June 15 at 6.30pm.
It is among 50 events featuring more than
80 authors at the two-day festival on June 16 and 17.
This year’s theme is ‘From little things …’ celebrating the belief that from little things, extraordinary things grow.
For the full festival program and tickets, visit www.willylitfest.org.au
