A
few months ago, being of unsound mind at the time, I threw out a question,
intending it to be rhetorical, 'Why don't we have a book festival in the town?'
Unfortunately, there are others out there of equally unsound mind who came back
with the repeated answer, 'Why not?'. So here I am, taking precious time out
from writing, to talk to book festival organisers around the country,
downloading fiendishly complicated funding application forms and generally
rushing round in a fever of passionate enthusiasm, nightly cooled by a cold
poultice of doubt.
I regularly attend book festivals, small and large (prefer the small) around the country so I know something about being a festival attendee. On the other hand, I knew precious little about the nature of the beast from an organiser's perspective until I started to make enquiries. Since then, it's been a steep learning curve but less painful than anticipated, thanks to the generous input from the organisers of other festivals such as Ullapool and Borders. Paula Ogilvie from the latter organisation, courtesy of Scottish Book Trust funding, has produced a comprehensive survey of book festivals throughout Scotland (currently numbering a staggering 34!) and this provides a wide range of vital information from audience profiling to ticket pricing.
Already I have had offers of help from a wide range of people in the area. Now they just need pinning down. I'm hoping my unsound mind phase lasts sufficiently long to see this project through. All it takes is vision, energy, enthusiasm, meticulous organisation, professionalism . . . and a very brassy neck! Let's translate this vision into reality.
