The rookie Australian Poetry Centre Festival was an ambitious joust staged over three days/ two nights of the ANZAC day weekend in autumn-struck Castlemaine. In between and around the real program, (literary events stuffed with Bob Adamson, Judith Beveridge, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Esther Ottaway, Jaya Savige, Anthony Lawrence, Lauren Williams, Ross Gillett, Barry Hill, Sam Hamill (USA), LK Holt, Laksmi Pamuntjak (Indonesia), Lorna Crozier (Canada) and many more), sub-festivals and demi-parties raged and fluttered in anarchic fashion. By late Sunday the promised hail fell with a short, sharp flourish followed by a spectacular rainbow. The program was pricey (for poetry) and packed. Debates raged over who killed and who sucked (often the same people according to different punters). Interspersed with tracelike near-dozes which served to recharge batteries, the vibometer was pulsing along happily. Verdict: four horseshoes out of five. A fine idea brought to fruition - well done APC.