A thousand blessings rain upon the head of long-term LeafSalon faithful Curtbutnotshort: he has manfully ignored a ridiculous workload in order to bring us this - a thoughtful and smirkworthy insight into his Going West festival last weekend. Thank you, Curt - it's made this Kiwi cultural exile very happy.

My weekend at Going West was interrupted with tempering the PA at Eden Park (but was unable to dampen Wellington supporters) and paternal duties [Curt is a sound engineer, and yes, father, in real life - Ed.], however I did manage to lap up Friday evening and most of Saturday’s events.

The festival opened with Karlo Mila giving the Allen Curnow reading: a soliloquy on poetry and the death of a king. Her observations were punctuated with photographs: vivid images of fire lining the route of the funeral procession and the passion of the proceeding riot – scores of children kneeling by the roadside in formal attire, a lone child succumbed to the heat and occasion, Tongan dignitaries wrapped like Californian rolls.

Chris Price then presented the keynote address on the increasing prevalence of 'truthiness' (statements that sound true but which have no basis in fact) in both journalism but also literature. Whilst there can be little argument that truthiness is an unwelcome guest in news reporting its use is more ambiguous in literature and the blurring of fiction and history/biography appears to be at the bleeding edge. I personally was unfazed by James Frey’s outing and remembered having a good laugh on LeafSalon at the posts of Norma Khouri doing a Winston.

Chris’s concern was that these books were likely to have failed if they had been read/reviewed as fiction but the public were/are willing to make concessions for books presented as non-fiction (obviously we have to raise our expectations of biographical prose). I don’t think truthiness is new – is it not similar to a white lie? Though it may be pervading through journalism there are just as many information sources questioning its veracity. But too many truthinesses just muddy the water and what are we left to believe? The talk was well-referenced and I wished she had handed out a reading sheet for further investigation.

But as Murray Gray pointed out, the weekend had only just begun and already we were half an hour behind – the next performance was going to have to be good to hold off supper. It was better. Eight Pacific Island poets performing 'Polynation' – the men sharing history and social commentary with ukulele and spoken voice. The women prowled and owned the stage, including Serie Barford, Karlo Milo who kept a haiku beneath her heel, and Tusiata Avia who was unable to contain the wild dogs under her skirt.

The evening concluded on the step of the hall with the ever-patient security guards waiting for the last glass to be consumed, fag to be stubbed and opinion to be concluded.

Saturday warmed up with the environment and the discussion panel certainly got a friendly ear from the early risers. Judging from the queue at the local café we will all be happy to make a few sacrifices as long as the carbon tax does not put too high a price on coffee.

I felt the 'China Down Under' session was disappointing as the panel appeared to be constrained by the theme. Three of the four panellists were born in New Zealand and all wrote in English. All appeared to want to be considered as kiwis with a proud Chinese ancestry rather than the other way around and appeared uncomfortable having to question their ethnicity and its role in their writing.

Unfortunately Eden Park beckoned halfway through the Nigel Cox session (what sort of truthiness shrouds Elvis Presley and his childhood in Mississippi – when will the world learn of his battles with the giant weta in the Wairarapa?). He appeared in a video interview and I was struck by his mana and quiet dignity. In the shop later I was drawn to his first two novels which he frequently warned people away from. However, I found the Berlin experience far more interesting and was distracted into purchasing his essays on his time there instead.

Mayor Bob Harvey is the much-loved, worn corduroy jacket of the Waitakeres and Going West should instigate the Harvey interview from now on, although the interviewee will have to tussle with Bob to get a word in. Hamish Keith proved equal to the task, and together they traversed the dodgy Waitakere transport of their youth; transforming the Labour party in the 70’s (doing a Trinnie and Susannah on Norman Kirk and changing him from fat to big); the need to overcome stereotypes of the country seen as young and rural and finally, Te Papa which could have filled the rest of the weekend if the bar hadn’t opened first.

The final session on Saturday and my last for the weekend was 'Homegrown' chaired by Nick Bollinger and discussing the documentation of music in New Zealand. This was interesting as it had both musicians and journalists on stage – although the line was largely blurred as most appeared to be journalists/writers and musicians. The vein most frequently mined was that the music journalists/critics herald small and obscure bands whilst ignoring the more popular and successful bands.

The defence was that critics had a wealth of material to digest, which gave rise to a more discerning taste – not mentioning names but I thought that Ian Morris was remarkably restrained, as it appeared to me that he was being told that the critics weren’t reviewing his bands because they had access to better, more obscure music and that the public only liked popular music because they didn’t. John Dix gave us the gossip we wanted to hear and Nick Bollinger was largely drowned out by the women surrounding me who couldn’t believe his age and were ready to toss brief items onto the stage.

Hopefully someone can fill you in on Sunday – most of the above actually happened, honest.