The new year has arrived and with it comes the annual Banjo Paterson Australian Poetry Festival.
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This year's festival will run from February 13-21 with competition coordinator and Rotary Club of Orange's Len Banks saying it will celebrate Orange and the Central West's heritage.
"We've found that there's a large number of people that enjoy bush poetry and culture in terms of cultural history of the Central West and Australia generally and that's what Banjo Patterson reflects," he said.
The Festival will include several events at which poets can perform and compete as well as entertainment at Molong, Yeoval, Borenore, Millthorpe and Orange for families and visitors.
But in a bit of a change, it will be the school-aged poets who will take centre stage.
"All the events will have Covid plans and we have to limit numbers and take the various precautions with Covid, therefore we aren't running any major national events," Mr Banks said.
"This year we've limited it to high school and primary school competitions, so contestants will generally be local with entries closing on 10 February.
"The performance competition will be held on the morning of Saturday, February 20 at the Orange Ex Services Club and is sure to be entertaining.
"We encourage primary and high school kids to write their poems for the competition, there's a bit of prize money and it's a good family event."
The full program is available on the Orange360 website where you can also register for the poetry competition.
The Molong Advancement Group is hosting a poetry brawl on Saturday, February 13 for adults and youth.
Peter Batten from Molong said: "The community is right behind this fun filled event in which people will compete with original poems of no more than 1 minute. It will be held at the Freemason's Hotel."
The community is also invited to Yeoval to witness the unveiling of a 3m tall bronze sculpture of Major Andrew Barton Patterson - a major project at the Yeoval Banjo Paterson Museum.
The Festival will also feature the regular favourite events of the poets' brunch at Yeoval, twilight celebration of Banjo's birthday in Orange, the Wrath of Grapes at Heifer Station Wines, Poetry on the Pavers and Rotary's market day as well as a visit to the historic Boree Cabonne homestead.