9 months
2 weeks ago
Sarah Smyth, Literature Festival Artistic Director writes…
What is it about literature festivals? I’ve been wondering this as I’ve gone from event to event over the last six days. It’s a strange beast, but from what people have told me in the corridors and outside the marquees, it’s one that’s valued very highly, and the sheer numbers of people who’ve been to the two hundred or so events so far are testament to that. Whether it’s the hunger for debate, the chance to meet the writer you’ve loved for years or the delight of the unexpected discovery, it’s clear that literature festivals are in rude good health up and down the country.
Walking around the Festival, it always strikes me that the greatest experiences you have are all about the unpredictable and unrepeatable moments. It might be the moment when someone asks just the right question that allows the writer to unlock something special and you suddenly see their work in a whole new light — or it might be the emotion in the room when a particular writer appears. I’ll always remember the applause that refused to end when Maya Angelou walked onto the stage, or — as people tell me every year — when Seamus Heaney stepped up to the lectern in Cheltenham the night after winning the Nobel Prize.
This year hasn’t been short of moments like this — everyone who was there for our event celebrating Dylan Thomas and his daughter Aeronwy will know what I mean — and so will those who were there to hear John Irving speak.
There’s still two days and more than eighty events to go… I’m especially intrigued by A L Kennedy’s stand-up show and storyteller Dominic Kelly’s new performance ‘Crow’ on Saturday evening — and on Sunday seeing how Jonathan Coe’s new collaboration with an actor and musician will bring a whole new dimension to his work. But it’s impossible to predict where those unforgettable moments will be — and that’s as true today as it was at our very first Festival sixty years ago.
We’ve tagged this post with 60th anniversary, literature, Sarah Smyth on Saturday 17 October 2009.
