{"id":341583,"date":"2025-12-11T20:36:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T20:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/341583\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T20:36:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T20:36:13","slug":"bendigo-writers-festival-council-report-recommends-one-year-hiatus-amid-reputational-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/341583\/","title":{"rendered":"Bendigo Writers Festival council report recommends one-year hiatus amid reputational damage"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Bendigo council review of its ill-fated 2025 Writers Festival has recommended a one-year hiatus before returning in 2027 with additional funding and a consideration of the influence sponsors and partners play in decision-making.<\/p>\n

The review recommended not pursuing the festival next year due to “reputational damage incurred in 2025”, among other reasons.<\/p>\n

More than 50 authors boycotted the event in August,<\/a> resulting in the cancellation of its opening and closing ceremonies after the council asked participants to adhere to a code of conduct just days before the festival’s launch.<\/p>\n

The code, which was sent at festival sponsor La Trobe University’s request, referenced the university’s anti-racism plan, which included a contested Universities Australia definition of antisemitism.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

Organisers including Julie Amos were devastated about how the Bendigo Writers Festival panned out. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

The Bendigo council and La Trobe University received consistent criticism<\/a> from the academic community and locals for their handling of the matter.<\/p>\n

The review said industry partners and publishers were still interested in continuing with the festival.<\/p>\n

However, it did not specify whether La Trobe University would be involved.<\/p>\n

It said La Trobe University was willing to partner on community programs and events, but also noted that “any decision-making around future cultural or financial sponsorships\/partnerships and their level of influence over decision making” would need to be carefully considered.<\/p>\n

La Trobe University did not directly confirm whether it would be involved should the festival go ahead in 2027.<\/p>\n

“La Trobe University welcomes the City of Greater Bendigo’s review of the Bendigo Writers Festival and its findings,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“We remain committed to supporting and collaborating [with the City of Greater Bendigo] on a range of initiatives that contribute to the intellectual and cultural life of the communities we serve in the Bendigo region.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Di Dempsey has welcomed the council review. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

‘A lot of common sense’<\/p>\n

The review included a roundtable discussion attended by key stakeholders who acknowledged the need for better planning and appointing a dedicated festival director.<\/p>\n

“The group reflected this year’s festival occurred against a backdrop of significant world events, meaning the operating environment for cultural events like this will require more careful planning in future.”<\/p>\n

It also recommended running a literary program next year in collaboration with Goldfields Library Corporation.<\/p>\n

Bendigo author Di Dempsey said the festival sustained a huge loss this year.<\/p>\n

However, she told ABC Statewide Mornings that she was pleased with the review and the council’s recommendations contained “a lot of common sense”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Rosemary Sorensen established the festival in 2012. (Supplied: Rosemary Sorensen)<\/p>\n

The festival’s founding director, Rosemary Sorensen, said the council’s report was “mostly good” but missed a few things.<\/p>\n

“They haven’t yet acknowledged that they did the wrong thing,” Ms Sorensen told ABC Statewide Drive.<\/p>\n

She is calling for both the Bendigo council and La Trobe University to issue an apology.<\/p>\n

“People are not going to put up with this kind of institutional obfuscation of what they are really doing,” she said.<\/p>\n

“So, if they can’t be honest, get out is what I would say.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Bendigo council review of its ill-fated 2025 Writers Festival has recommended a one-year hiatus before returning in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9903,64,63,67489,55981,9785,189642,5584,189643,85,6771],"class_list":["post-341583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-antisemitism","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-authors","tag-bendigo-writers-festival","tag-censorship","tag-latrobe-university","tag-literature","tag-regional-events","tag-sports","tag-tourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}