Going Down Swinging

The humble literary journal often gets short shrift at writer’s festivals, despite being one of the main avenues through which new writers hone their skills and assume the mantle of being next year’s superstars. Not so at MWF! We love lit journals, big and small, funded and independent. In fact we love them so much we bought a shipping container, plonked it on the riverbank and let them off the leash to run their own mini festivals. Magazine features Overland, Kill Your Darlings, The Lifted Brow, Meanjin, Ampersand, harvest & The Big Issue all doing their thang from 10-5 on the Saturday & Sunday of each festival weekend. It’s FREE and we have no idea what these mags are preparing, so pop your head into the container and join in the ruckus.

There’s one mag I haven’t mentioned there – Going Down Swinging. They’re at Magazine on Sun 29th from 130pm-5pm, but also have something a little special going on at the Toff on Thursday 2nd Sep. Yes folks, GDS celebrates its 30th anniversary with Thursday Night Swing Club, sure to be one of the best parties of the festival! Going Down Swinging is one of those journals that has always dared to be different, presenting not just fiction and poetry but featuring comics long before it was fashionable and highlighting alternative forms of writing. On top of that they’ve included CDs of spoken word performance since 1999, and there ain’t many doing that, friends. A lot of modern journals owe a debt to the path that GDS worked tirelessly to forge and the launch of issue 30 is sure to be a momentous occasion.

Excited yet? How about Rockwiz’s Brian Nankervis hosting a night of performance from the likes of Maxine Beneba Clarke, Ezra Bix, Emily XYZ & Myers Bartlett, alongside Eleanor Jackson and Paul Mitchell. All this goodness launched by Richard Watts and featuring DJ Johnny Topper on the decks, a Silent Disco projection and FLAP putting a trademark swing in your step. Forget the rest, this is the place to be on Thursday 2nd Sep for a once in a lifetime experience at the Toff. Free copy of this amazing issue with the door price, plus fun times guaranteed. Break out those party shoes peeps, and see you there!