Wakefield Lit Fest is back for 2016 and celebrates
its 5th anniversary - Beam and the Lit Fest team are looking
forward to sharing another packed programme celebrating all things
reading and writing taking place across the district from 23
September – 2 October 2016.
Highlights for
2016
As usual there are a sprinkling of pre-festival events followed by
10 days filled with more than 60 events to whet everyone’s literary
appetite from writing workshops to talks, music to comedy, film
screenings to history walks, spoken word to storytelling- and even
a quiz.
A few highlights for 2016 include best-selling author and MP Alan Johnson;
international best-selling author of the sensationally successful Skulduggery Pleasant series
Derek Landy
and West Yorkshire’s very own authors Jack Sheffield
and Annabel
Pitcher. There are plenty of spoken word events
including an evening with Roger
McGough, Unity Words present Hollie McNish
along with festival favourites A Firm of Poets. Kate Fox
returns to the festival for 2016 with her unique brand of poetry,
to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Red Shed the
festival presents an evening of Ranting poetry called Stand Up and
Spit hosted by Matt Abbott with Janine Booth,
Ralph Dartford,
Helen Mort
and Tim Wells.
Comedian and activist Mark
Thomas also makes an appearance at the Red Shed for
an evening of socialist comedy and satire.
Everyone has a story...
Don’t miss
a full programme of events with storytelling, workshops and special
events programmed by our partners at Wakefield Libraries and
Museums; the inaugural Pontefract
Festival of Stories presented by the Tap and
Barrel - themed around Ian Clayton’s best-selling music memoir Bringing It All Back
Home, in celebration of its tenth anniversary -
as well as lots of exciting events presented by our festival
partners and seed funded community events.
Festival
in a Day at Altofts and Lightwaves
This year’s Lit Fest in a Day offers a fun-packed day and evening
taking place at The Brig, Altofts on Saturday 24 September called Our
Treasures and features free family-friendly
activities and performance with That Poetry Bloke, Craig
Bradley, pop-up poetry readings and a Treasured Stories Trail with
artist Becky
Cherriman as well as an evening of music, spoken
word and a 5-a-side slam with A Firm of Poets.
Drop in to Lightwaves Leisure and Community Centre on Saturday 1
October for a one-day festival of reading and
writing with free events and activities for all the family
including children’s storytelling with Manasamitra,
poetry and dance, and a performance of a new comedy Reservoir Rami
currently in in development by Wakefield writer Azar Ashraf.
Get
involved in Lit Fest!
We're looking for enthusiastic festival fans to be part of this
year's festival and volunteer - we have a number of roles you can
help with, stewarding events, selling books or meeting and greeting
audience members. Visit our website for more information about
how to get involved.
For full
event listings and to book please visit www.wakefieldlitfest.org.uk
