It’s that time of year when things seem so…vital… in the festival office. Final programming decisions are being made, the brochure is being designed and discussed until we are blue in the face. Banners, postcards, posters and other things that will not be used for months are now suddenly urgent. A festival that has since January felt so far away is now close enough to count on our rapidly filling diary sheets.
June and July have been hot and busy. We have spent a lot of time thinking about how we can ring the changes in this year’s festival in terms of our style and brand – we’ve got some ideas that we’ll be working on between now and then.
Inspiring us during this hectic time are some brilliant events. We hosted our third Write On Awards ceremony for children involved in the writers in schools programme we run this week. Listening to them reading their work and talking about the time they’ve spent with writers is so rewarding – this is just one of the ways in which writing really can make a difference.
That was followed by a fantastic joint launch event for Roz Goddard’s Sopranos Sonnets and Michael W.Thomas’ Port Winston Mulberry, hosted by Nine Arches Press. If you haven’t read Michael or Roz’s work, I can thoroughly recommend them both.
Both Associate Director Jonathan and myself have spent some time at Ledbury, too – gorgeous hot afternoons filled with poetry and conversation. It felt almost like being on holiday.
Being in the sunlit streets of Ledbury reminded me of one of the difficult things about planning for a Festival – imagining what things will be like when the time comes. Now, in the sunshine of July, our minds turn to literary picnics and outdoor events. How to transplant these lovely images into autumn’s dark evenings and indoor spaces? How to decide what shape and size to make our posters – a lot can happen between now and then.
Small fry, of course, in relation to deciding on the actual programme for October. This is a process that takes months, and a lot of reading, talking and listening. It is finished, bar some small tweaks. I really hope you like it. As always there are things I would have liked to fit in but couldn’t, and there are things I’m saving for next year. We are welcoming back some old friends, and making some exciting new ones.
It will be announced very soon – in the next few weeks. In the meantime, if you are not on our mailing list, now is the time to join – you won’t want to miss our brochure this year – it has had something of a facelift…
Lastly, a thank you to all those who entered our short story competition – so many wonderful entries. Judging is underway!
Enjoy the sunshine.