Bookseller Stalls

Saturday & Sunday
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM, Anzac Hall 

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Booksellers of second-hand, self-published and antiquarian books from around New Zealand fill up the Anzac Hall over the Festival to offer you exquisite moments of fossicking for your future reading pleasure.

 Featherston Menzshed Squircle Market 

Saturday 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Featherston Town Square 

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By special request, the Menzshed of Featherston is holding a market in the Featherston Town Square on Saturday, 11 June. Come by and check out the arts and crafts displayed by our fantastic stallholders. All money raised is channelled back into the community. Everyone welcome!

 Sign the Hand-Made Featherston Booktown Visitors Book 

Saturday & Sunday
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Supper Room, Anzac Hall Complex 

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The 2021 Featherston Booktown Festival Visitors’ Book – made from locally sourced harakeke fibres by Rob Kennedy and 2019’s papermaking workshop participants and bound by Anna Whitehead – will be on display in the Supper Room of the Anzac Hall building for you to view and sign.

 The Old Court House
Art Gallery: Exhibition - The Art of Books 

Saturday & Sunday
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM,
The Old Court House  

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The Old Courthouse Art Gallery will be holding an exhibition of local artists who have created literary themed pieces leaving it up to the artist as to how they interpret ‘The Art of Books’. Come check out the kooky, the clever and the fantastic.

 Drop in and learn about Forestry

Saturday
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
St. Teresa's School. FREE. 

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Kids can drop in at the Waiorongomai classroom at St Teresa’s School to learn about forestry and read stories, and a forester will take them to see the log truck parked beside the ANZAC Hall. Ride wooden push-bikes on a chalk-drawn road network in the school courtyard too. No ticket needed, just drop in between 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM.

Country Tea & Cakes

Saturday & Sunday
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Supper Room, Anzac Hall Complex 

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Our tea room in the Anzac Hall is a vital element of the magic that is the Featherston Booktown Festival. All the food is lovingly handmade and served by a group of local volunteers who've supported the Festival in this wonderful way since the very beginning. Their club sandwiches, cheese scones, cupcakes and slices are legendary.

 

 Booktown
Buskers

Saturday & Sunday
Various locations ​
(see timetable below on this page)
 

We’ll have buskers to entertain you. They're playing for the love of it, so if you like what you hear why not give them some koha – preferably cash. There’ll be something for everyone from folk and country, to jazz standards and bagpipes – and not forgetting the Wairarapa Youth Orchestra. Their Sunday lunchtime concert in the Squircle is a fundraiser for this enthusiastic young group.

 Exhibition of Megan Campbell’s Paintings at The Ferret Bookshop 

Saturday & Sunday
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
The Ferret Bookshop 

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Megan will be showing some small works at Ferrets Bookshop, Featherston, throughout the 2022 Festival. The works are oils on found tin trays in the tradition of the Retablo. Megan has been a working artist for over 20 years with regular exhibitions in the Wairarapa, Wellington and Auckland

 David Merritt
@ The Miracle Room

Saturday & Sunday
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM
The Miracle Room. KOHA. 

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The brilliant David Merritt - street poet and publisher, landrover farmer, chicken whisperer and copyleft advocate - will write and print his philosophical prose on recycled materials for koha. Former Featherston Booktown poet in residence, David inspires a wide variety of people to take an interest in the poetry of everyday life. 

Note: The Miracle Room is now located at 4 Wakefield Street. 

Food Trucks

Saturday & Sunday
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM (ish)
The Squircle (Town Square). 

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Feeling peckish between events? Whip down to the centre of town for a bite from a Food Truck. This weekend there will be Taco Addicts, Good Times Food, Sushi Burritos and Kiwi Kai* serving up tasty nosh to keep you well fuelled over the Festival.

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* Kiwi Kai (Sunday only)

Featherston
Saturday Market

Saturday 7:30 AM – 2:00 PM
33 Fitzherbert St 

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Featherston Market runs every Saturday, rain or shine, from 7:30am to nearly 2pm, providing fresh produce, fine food producers, innovative creators and much more. Take in the great atmosphere, amazing food and community spirit. You’ll find the market at 33 Fitzherbert Street, through the gates at the back of the Lang's carpark, beside The Baker.

 Mini Fell Engine
Is On Track 

Saturday & Sunday
10:00 AM – 2:00 PM,
Clifford Square
(weather permitting) 

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Interest in miniature trains is huge and world-wide. Discover the joy of riding the rail on a mini-reproduction of an historic Fell engine – great fun for adults and children alike. Then pop over the road to the Fell Engine Museum and see the last remaining Fell engine in the world. Expand your understanding of this fascinating piece of our history by talking to like-minded enthusiasts. The museum is located on the corner of State Highway 2 and Lyon Street in the centre of Featherston.

 

 Children’s Treasure Trail on the Main Street 

Throughout the weekend, pick up entry forms from shops & library 

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The literary treasure trail through the main street is now a tradition; there's one for adults, and one for children. Over the Festival weekend, study the shop windows, looking for clues about books. Entry forms are available from the Featherston Library and the town's seven Bookshops. Find the clues, fill in the form and return it to any of the seven bookshops by 4pm Sunday.  The prize - one for each hunt - is books and vouchers and we’ll contact the winners and arrange delivery after the weekend. Enjoy!

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 Wood is Good
on Saturday

Saturday
11:00 AM - MIDDAY
St. Teresa's School. FREE. 

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The Wood is Good event at Featherston Booktown on Saturday 11 June is free for kids. Erica Kinder will read from her book Fred the Forester and there will be prizes, and wooden games and books for sale.

Vic Manuel

Outside Dickensian Bookshop

Saturday 10:15 AM - 10:45 AM

South Wairarapa Pipe Band

Squircle

Saturday 10:15 AM - 10:45 AM

Don McKay

Supermarket

Saturday 10:15 AM - 10:45 AM

South Wairarapa Pipe Band

Train station

Saturday 10:55 AM - 11:15 AM

Vic Manuel

RSA/Chicken & Frog

Saturday 12:15 PM - 12:45 PM

Don McKay

Outside Dickensian Bookshop

Saturday 12:15 PM - 12:45 PM

Thistle Kissers

Loco/Hub Legal

Saturday 12:15 PM - 12:45 PM

Featherston Winds

Supermarket

Saturday 12:15 PM - 12:45 PM

Broken Lexicon

The Royal Hotel

Saturday 12:15 PM - 1:15 PM

Featherston Winds

Outside Dickensian Bookshop

Saturday 2:15 PM - 2:45 PM

Thistle Kissers

Outside Anzac Hall

Saturday 2:15 PM - 2:45 PM

Broken Lexicon

RSA/Chicken & Frog

Saturday 2:15 PM - 2:45 PM

Thistle Kissers

Train station

Saturday 4:25 PM - 4:45 PM

Don MacKay

RSA/Chicken & Frog

Sunday 10:15 AM - 10:45 AM

South Wairarapa Pipe Band

Squircle

Sunday 10:15 AM - 10:45 AM

Broken Lexicon

Outside Dickensian Bookshop

Sunday 10:15 AM - 10:45 AM

South Wairarapa Pipe Band

Train Station

Sunday 10:55 AM - 11:05 AM

Wairarapa Youth Orchestra

Squircle

Sunday 12:15 PM - 12:45 PM

Don MacKay

Supermarket

Sunday 12:15 PM - 12:45 PM

Don MacKay

Outside Anzac Hall

Sunday 2:15 PM - 2:45 PM

Broken Lexicon

RSA/Chicken & Frog

Sunday 2:15 PM - 2:45 PM

Featherston Winds

Loco/Hub Legal

Sunday 2:15 PM - 2:45 PM