The Festival of a Thousand Stories is a celebration of storytelling, art, poetry and music on the banks of the Darling River at Bourke.
The festival has grown out of Bourke’s popular Poets Trek – a two-day experience tour that takes people on a literary journey through Australia’s past in the footsteps of renowned poets Henry Lawson, Will Ogilvie and Harry ‘the Breaker’ Morant, who lived, worked and found inspiration in great, grey plains and red mulga paddocks of Bourke.
For more than 20 years, the Poets Trek has been sharing the amazing stories of Bourke’s past with visitors, but a few keen locals saw an opportunity to build on the success of the Trek and create a showcase event for Bourke.
So, in 2013 the Festival of a Thousand Stories was born. The name was inspired by the poem ‘Bourke’ written by local poet, the late Wilkie Davis:
Bourke, author of a thousand stories,
Told by the stockmen when the campfires gleam.
May you go on to greater, grander glories
And grow and prosper by the Darling stream.
http://www.festival1000stories.com.au
