Storyfest will celebrate storytelling, with the first festival to be held on June 21 and 22, 2019. However, the event will be launched in Milton on Saturday, July 21. 

Festival director Meredith Jaffe said Storyfest would focus on all types of storytelling. 

“We always wanted something down here that was a literary type festival. That idea has evolved and we feel that story telling is more than just about books and we wanted to have a festival that celebrates all forms of storytelling,” she said. 

"Poetry, film and art is huge in this community, so we have wanted to embrace as many aspects of storytelling as possible.

“This launch is us saying, we are here, we are on the map, and we are giving you a taste of what you can look forward to in 2019.” 

The festival’s launch will host Markus Zusak, who will attend an ‘in conversation’ with Senior Judge of the NSW Premier’s Literary Award, Suzanne Leal.

Zusak will address the event ahead of the release of his newest novel, Bridge of Clay, which will go on sale in October 2018. 

“We knew Markus had a book coming in October, his first book in a very long time, which has already sold over 500,000 copies in pre-order in hardback in the US,” Ms Jaffe said. 

“Markus bent over backwards because he truly believes this part of the world deserves a storytelling festival and he wants to be a part of that.”

In the first day of sales, 25 per cent of tickets to the launch sold. To buy tickets to the July launch, visit www.storyfest.org.au or the Harbour Bookshop in Ulladulla. 

The 2019 festival program will be launched in July, with Ms Jaffe tight lipped about what was planned and which guests would appear. 

“We have some really big names that are really keen to come down. It will be a matter of who we can fit in,” she said. 

“On the Friday to launch the festival, there will be a writers workshop with a wonderfully talented award winning Australian writer, and on the Friday night there will be two dinners; A crime writing dinner and a best selling authors dinner.”

The Saturday of the festival will include 15 events, both fiction and non-fiction, and will cater to all ages. 

Ms Jaffe said the festival would close on Saturday night with a gala dinner, or movie night. 

“There will be two events for people to choose from on the Saturday night,” she said. 

“We want to keep it contained for the first year so we aren’t over extending ourselves and falling in a heap. But, we will look to extend the program onto the Sunday as well in the future.”

The festival was for the community, Ms Jaffe said. 

“This is not our festival, we are just the people running it for everyone else,” she said. 

“It is the communities festival and to that end, we will be opening to submissions from August 1 so if people have ideas or a wish list of who they want to come, they can let us know.”