THE inaugural SPYfest event isn’t just a chance to honour a Goulburnian, but an opportunity to tap into something “completely unique, with just a little bit of weirdness”.
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Chris Gordon, who floated the idea in 2010 to commemorate George Lazenby’s turn as James Bond, believes this weekend is Goulburn’s opportunity to secure a long term event.
“You hear stories about how Goulburn was originally offered the Tamworth Country Music Festival or the Bathurst 1000, but we didn’t grab the opportunity,” Mr Gordon said.
“Rather than sit back and reflect on what might have been, this is our chance to make sure that SPYfest is a success and becomes a regular event. It’s got the potential to become a Comic-Con style festival.”
For Mr Gordon, a digital editor for Fairfax Media (the publisher of the Goulburn Post), it started as a harmless question. Is George Lazenby a Goulburnian?
“For years, Goulburnians had declared he was one of ours but there had been surprisingly little information recorded about his time in our fair city. So we got digging,” he said.
“We included the question on Facebook and as a brief article in the Town Talk section of the Goulburn Post in October 2010 and expected maybe a couple of replies.
“By lunch that day a dozen people had called us, emailed us or dropped in to tell us they knew George Lazenby from his days in Goulburn.
“That number doubled before the day was out and the phone calls kept coming in after that.”
For Mr Gordon, the months of hard work put in by the organising committee have been “outstanding”.
“To have an idea is one thing, but for the SPYfest committee to have pulled this all together in a relatively short period of time, and make it the big event that it promises to be, is quite incredible,” he said.
“The hard yakka they’ve put in is quite incredible.”
While George Lazenby’s return is key to the SPYfest, he’s not the only former Goulburn boy making a homecoming.
Thriller novelist Greg Barron will be one of the speakers at an authors’ forum at the Goulburn Club tomorrow at 1.30pm.
Greg’s first novel, Rotten Gods, was released in 2012. His second title ‘Savage Tide’ followed a year later with Voodoo Dawn, a digital novelette, published in March 2014 and Lethal Sky released four months later.
Mr Barron will be joined by suspense crafter Rachel Amphlett, ex-military man Chris Allen, novel debutant Scott Baker and both Derek Emerson-Elliot and Lynette Silver, who have written a biography of Denis Emerson-Elliott, a former MI6 agent who lived in Australia for 42 years.
Ms Silver’s book, In the Mouth of the Tiger details how the former British spy may have been the real life inspiration behind Ian Fleming’s most famous character.
A number of activities make up this year’s SPYfest, including the street parade, featuring Mr Lazenby and James Bond-era cars at 11am.
The SPYfest will officially open at 12 noon in Belmore Park, where Mr Lazenby will be presented with the keys to the city by Mayor Geoff Kettle.
Mr Lazenby will hold an autograph signing session in the Park’s rotunda following the opening ceremony.
Some of Australia’s most talented karate champions will demonstrate their attack, defence and strength training skills in Belmore Park from 1pm.
The Spy and Buy Markets, run by the Rotary Club of Goulburn, will have bargains on offer from 8am.
Join the fun of Spyfest, hashtag your Twitter and Instagram posts with #SpyfestGoulburn.
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