The Literary Festival Newsletter: A field near Swindon...
As everyone works out what they can do this year - is it possible to organise events online etc? This response from the Swindon Spring Festival was very imaginative so thought i would share as inspiration… The idea of the field is great but also i like the way it reframes the programme as being a hand picked choice of 20 books that everyone should still read..
Their press release…
FESTIVAL & CORONAVIRUS . . . . UPDATE
Organisers of the Swindon Spring Festival take seriously the present Coronavirus situation, their responsibilities to Festival followers and the public at large, and the importance of heeding Government advice.
In the light of all this, plans for the Festival are proceeding as follows.
The Festival programme, in hardcopy and on our website, will be launched as planned at midday on Thursday 26th March but . . . not, as intended, in a theatre, indoors, with food, drink, lots of Festival followers crowded together, and maybe even hugging and kissing one another. No, absolutely not.
Instead, hot off the press, this year’s Festival programme will be launched in the open air, in a field, with a backdrop of birch tree and birdsong, at Lower Shaw Farm.
Festival banners will mark the spot from where, for two hours, from 12midday to 2pm on Thursday 26th March, people can simply come along and get a programme, or even a bundle to share with neighbours and friends, from a table in the middle of a field, far from the madding crowd.
They can come one by one, or two by two, keeping far apart, or as they like, making right decisions for their own wellbeing and that of all others.
That way they can get a Festival programme and read about more than twenty books and their authors who are or were due to appear live at the Festival in May.
The likelihood that many of them may now not appear live is a real one.
However, there are other ways of enjoying the fruits of their labours and those of the Festival organisers.
Festival followers can buy or borrow books described in the programme, and read them, especially if finding themselves in enforced isolation. What better companion, to lift the spirits, than a good book!
And, in these tricky and troubling times, there is still more good news from the Festival.
It is likely that, during May, at their allotted times and dates as advertised in the programme, a number of kind authors will do online talks and q&as, for us, just as they might have done live at the Festival.
Watch the Festival website, Facebook, and twitter accounts for details of these virtual Festival events as they emerge.
Finally, and perhaps the most exciting news, is that on 5th May, the Festival will launch and mark the publication, by a prizewinning author, of a brand new book titled A Saint in Swindon!
It’s brilliant, topical, wise, entertaining, serious, funny, set in Swindon, and a fabulously-good read.
We hope it will be enjoyed by Swindonians and are sure it will be read far and wide, maybe even helping put Swindon more firmly on the map, at least the literary one.
If anyone needs to know more, at any time, please contact the Festival at www.swindonspringfest@lowershawfarm.co.uk or call 01793 771080.
Matt Holland
Festival Organiser