A Rock & Roll Writers Festival Announces 2017 Return, First Speakers & Dates

Nascent industry event A Rock & Roll Writers Festival will move to a new home in its second year, with organisers revealing this week that the popular new summit will return for another run in 2017.

Following its successful inaugural event at The Brightside earlier this year, RRWF will be back in Brisbane on Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 April, moving to its fresh premises at historic venue The Old Museum, in Bowen Hills.

Leading the charge of speakers destined to christen the new venue for next year's event are music biographer Holly George-Warren, lauded novelist Nick Earls, music photographer Sophie Howarth, musician and memoirist Hugo Race, Grant McLennan Fellowship songwriter Tim Steward, country-blues troubadour Cash Savage and singer-songwriter Mike Noga (ex-The Drones), with more to be announced in the near future. 

This year's first iteration welcomed a diversity of Queensland scribes, industry types and musicians from all walks, including journalists such as Andrew McMillen, Kate Hennessy, Noel Mengel and Bernard Zuel, authors such as Andrew Stafford (Pig City) and Nicole Hayes (One True Thing), Pedestrian writer Ben McLeay (aka Thomas Violence), Don Walker, Deborah Conway, Bec Mac (4ZZZ), BC Michaels (Dune Rats), Graham Ashton (Footstomp Music), John Busby (Busby Marou), Jess Ribeiro, Jake Stone (Bluejuice) and many more.

With a solid framework already in its newly announced roster of speakers, the 2017 event will look to at least equal that performance for notability, angling to lock down more than 30 authors, musicians, songwriters, journalists, commentators and broadcasters to come together to discuss all things creative, innovative and inspirational in a mutually rewarding setting.

The full program will be announced in February.

The 2017 Rock & Roll Writers Festival will be held at The Old Museum over the weekend of 1-2 April. Earlybird tickets ($99) are available now via the venue.