A Rock & Roll Writers Festival Unveils Final Speakers & Melb Event Plans

A Rock & Roll Writers Festival returns for its second annual event this April, and organisers have announced that they've locked away the final batch of speakers joining the wide-ranging and evocative program, along with plans to take the show on tour to Melbourne.

A further 16 speakers have been added to the 2017 bill, including Flying Nun Records founder Roger Shepherd as well as celebrated musical identities such as Adalita, Ngaiire, Kahl Wallis (The Medics), Joel Birch (The Amity Affliction), John Willsteed (Halfway, The Go-Betweens) and more.

The group will join the existing line-up of thinkers, doers and makers set to hit The Old Museum in a couple of months, which includes Nick Earls, Tim Rogers, Sophie Howarth, Hugo Race, Cash Savage, Mike Noga, Zan Rowe, Iain Shedden, Rod Yates, US fly-in Holly George-Warren and many more.

This year's program touches on themes that stretch across ruminations on identity, personal freedom, musical academia, masculinity and its impact on the music industry, national culture, photography, memoirs, youth issues, mental health, gender equality and the most impacting and significant musical and cultural moments of the past quarter-century.

For a full rundown of all that's on offer when A Rock & Roll Writers Festival lands at The Old Museum on 1-2 April, see the event's website.

Those who aren't able to make it to the Brisbane leg won't necessarily have to wait till next year to get a taste of the event's excellent programming, however; in fact, the organisers have dropped the surprise news that they'll be holding a snapshot Tour Edition in Melbourne, a single-day, four-panel sampler of the wider RRWF spread featuring a selection of speakers from this year's festival, as well as some holdovers from last year's inaugural event.

The line-up for Melbourne's mini-fest will be announced in the near future before hitting Abbotsford Convent on Sunday 9 April.