Famous book sale leaving home, ditching all-nighter format

Bargain hunters swarm the Regent Theatre at the 2019 24 Hour Book Sale.Photo / Gerard O'Brien

Obsessive book-lovers compulsively burning the midnight oil at the Regent Theatre 24 Hour Book Sale have just become a memorable chapter in a recently closed book.
They will no longer be able to stalk the aisles of books at ungodly hours because the event has just been transformed into a two-day event — and it will not be at the theatre.

Instead, it will be held at the More FM Arena, in the Edgar Centre, during daylight hours, 12 hours each on December 3 and 4.

It is the first time in 40 years that the annual book sale will not be held in the Regent Theatre.

Organiser Alison Cunningham said the sale had continued to grow over the decades, and as a result, it had been split in two, the Anything But Books Sale being held at a different time.

"It's expanded into the basement and into an off-site sorting space, and still the generosity of donations from the people of Otago has meant the sale has simply outgrown the theatre.

"It also means that for four weekends of the year, we can't use the theatre as a performance space."

Cunningham said access to the theatre, the stage and under the stage was difficult for many.

"It made sense that we find somewhere that was practical, flat and easy to load stock into.

"And there's much better car parking [at the Edgar Centre].

"It means people can fill up a box, they can pop it in their car, grab a cup of coffee and go back and do it all again.

"You could spend all day there."

She said the extra space would also allow the book sale and the Anything But Books Sale to merge again.

"It gives us the opportunity to return to selling some of those out-of-date things that people have bemoaned that we don't keep any more because we haven't had the space.

"Now we can sell things like the nice books from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s which most people don't read; but those who do, don't have anywhere else to find them."

She said the relocation might be unpopular with some of the "traditionalists" in the city, but it would allow the theatre to raise a lot more money.

The sales are an important source of funds for its capital projects.