The 19th Swindon Festival of Literature was launched. Yay!

At 12 noon yesterday, the spring sun shone on the open-air courtyard of Swindon’s prize-winning Central Library, which was full of the best and keenest of Festival followers, including poets, students, workers, OAPs, and MPs, and the programme for the 19th Swindon Festival of Literature was launched. Yay!

Chatting, nibbling, and reading programmes, hot off the local Acorn press, assembled folk looked lovely, to me anyway, especially the ones wearing Festival T-shirts but in their own choice of colour, like perfect pink and bright orange. And the 5-year old twins in ‘nightgown’ litfest-logoed T-shirts were beautiful beyond belief, even when they played ring-a-roses races round the dignitaries silver chairs.

Last year’s Youth Slam winners PWA (Poets with Attitude) performed their winning poem, which, among other teenage topics, finger-wagged at intolerant parents, but with an appropriate mix of affection, compassion, and humour.
The town’s new Manager for Arts & Libraries spoke freely and positively about the arts in Swindon and sang the Festival’s praises, and called it quirky, but with an appropriate mix of affection, compassion, and humour.

One of the town’s MPs spoke spontaneously, about his love of books, even e ones, and the Festival too, echoing the ‘quirky’ epithet, but of course, with an appropriate mix of affection, compassion, and humour.

And I spoke too, with a thankful mix of affection, compassion, and humour, about local makers, suppliers, and sponsors, without whom the Festival could not happen. And its helpers too, which on this day included a kindly Australian, an elegant grandma, numerous salt-of-the-earth Swindonians, and a terrific teenager from Swindon’s largest family.

The excitement was such, at least for me, that I forgot my peroration, to go through the programme, highlighting highlights and lowlights. Oh dear. I do hope it will be read rather than glanced at. There’s more to this celeb-free prog than meets the casual eye. Read it, on www.swindonfestivalofliterature.co.uk, and see!

By mid afternoon, back at the office, down on the farm by the hen house, and first email from box office comes in. It says that people have come straight from launch, to book tickets. Yay!

Matt Holland
matt@lowershawfarm.co.uk

Look out for weekly updates on what's happening in preparation for the Festival.


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