Cove & Kilcreggan Book Festival — 2020 edition
In the beginning the Cove and Kilcreggan Book Festival was little more than a gleam in a few local eyes. A notion that our rural villages could contribute to the growing network of literary events across Scotland. That was 8 years ago. In the interim, we’ve built up an audience both local and national, and, as importantly, built a squad of community volunteers who lend their time and their skills to every aspect of the annual festival.
Accessing a grant for these activities from Creative Scotland vastly increased the ambition of our offer. We could afford to bring Scots home for events from London, like Helena Kennedy. We could push the boundaries of the genres we covered, confident that even if some of the material was unfamiliar, we could now ensure that we brought in authors who could appeal to a first time audience for their work.
When we had to go digital in 2020, the grant allowed us to provide a professional and polished virtual product. The cast list was Sally Magnusson, Alan Johnson, Kirsty Wark, Peter Ross, Clare Hunter and Peter Geoghegan. As usual it was an eclectic mix of authors and indeed what they talked about varied considerably. The mix combined to serve up a fascinating festival where topics as diverse as politics, embroidery, graveyards, music, novels and current affairs were covered. And tracking suggests our audience came from across Europe, Canada and the USA. Not bad for a wee community book festival.
From a standing start, our annual festival is now the biggest event in our villages’ cultural life. Creative Scotland didn’t just fund a festival. They helped start a wee revolution.
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