As August draws near and authors gear up for a big weekend in Byron Bay, Byron Writers Festival has revealed its complete program for its 30th anniversary edition

For a small regional area the Byron Shire and Northern Rivers have had an outsized impact on the culture and music in Australia.

Byron Writers Festival is set to take over Byron Bay from Friday 14 – Sunday 16 August. This morning it has unveiled the first collection of authors for its 2026 program, alongside a limited release of three-day passes, marking the beginning of a milestone 30th anniversary.

Byron Writers Festival organisers say that volunteer applications for the 2026 event are now open.

Who knows how many terrific ideas have wafted and dissolved after long literary lunches? This one didn’t – a shared idea took root, and after a lot of hard work the Northern Rivers Writers Centre, based in Lismore, was born and its first Byron Writers Festival took place in 1997.

After last year’s Byron Writers Festival was washed out, it was time to put the thinking caps on and work out a new plan – in this climate-impacted world how do you put a festival on that minimises the risk of it happening again?

Over the weekend we saw the cancellation of the Byron Writers Festival owing to another significant rain event on the NSW east coast.

In a devastating blow, the 2025 Byron Writers Festival (BWF) was cancelled last weekend after a successful, though wet, Friday session.

The organisers of the 2025 Byron Writers Festival have regrettably decided to cancel the rest of the weekend’s events, owing to the condition of the festival site, as well as ongoing rain.

Starting today the Byron Writers Festival will be igniting imaginations, stirring conversations, and celebrating the power of stories at the picturesque Bangalow Showgrounds on Bundjalung Country.