‘I [want to] congratulate you on a tremendous literary festival. We enjoyed it immensely and marvelled at the quality of writers you attracted.’ We’ve received many kind comments from people who attended the festival during the weekend of 11th-13th October. Even though it bucketed with rain on Saturday, we got good turnouts for all the events. The dust has settled and we’ve had our wash-up meeting.
The festival was a Franco-British event run by a joint team. We could have done with several extra hands, despite press-ganging spouses and other hangers-on into the fray. And we owe huge thanks to local people who put up authors overnight and looked after them. People said how smoothly everything went; they weren’t aware how fraught it was behind the scenes (‘Ducks paddling hard beneath the surface,’ as one author put it).
It started with a French words and music spectacle. The festival continued throughout Saturday and Sunday with a parallel series of workshops and author talks in French and English. The authors signed their books and we sold them.
I won’t run through the programme in detail, which you can see here. We were fortunate to attract a wide range of authors with very different styles. They all talked in some way about the craft of writing and gave useful tips, e.g. use a computer without Internet access to avoid displacement activity. One for me. A writing friend said afterwards, ‘I must say I’m feeling very inspired after the weekend.’
In addition to author sessions, Anne Dyson, who ran the Greedy Goose cookery school in Aveyron, demonstrated making canapés. She managed to produce a dozen different tasty morsels in the space of an hour, while delivering a witty, informative and seamless spiel. She selected me as her assistant, which she might have come to regret, but I got to wear a rather nice white apron.
Some good tips from Anne:
- parsley stalks have more flavour than the leaves, so don’t discard them
- use a paintbrush instead of a pastry brush
- let guests shell their own quails’ eggs!
We held a ‘meet the authors’ dinner on the Saturday. Seventy people crammed into the local auberge de La Castille, where an author hosted each table. The ambience was friendly and convivial, as it had been in the author sessions.
What did the authors themselves think? Here are just a couple of comments:
‘I had an absolute ball! I knew it would be interesting but I had no idea how much I would enjoy myself, everyone was so lovely and the atmosphere was fantastic.’
‘I thought your festival was great and I was really pleased with the crowd that came to see me – a wonderful, interesting group of people and I felt there was a really warm ambience.’
Naturally, we could have done many things better. This was our first time running such an event and you certainly learn from experience. But its overall success shows what you can do in rural France with an enthusiastic team.
A second festival is planned for next year. Watch this space.
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Four months have passed since this festival and I still recall it on an almost daily basis, it was such a pleasure to attend and as a newcomer to the writing world, that is, as a hopeful future writer, but currently wearing “L”plates, .attending lesson 1. .I listened, questioned and tried to learn..Looking forward to the next one later in the year.
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I’m glad you enjoyed it and found it inspiring, Bob. I think we all still wear ‘L’ plates! I’m not involved in the organisation of the next one owing to other commitments but Gina will keep us all informed about what’s planned.
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What a fantastic event with so many authors. Must have taken a lot of organisation to coordinate. Love the idea of a dinner to bring everyone together in convivial surroundings.
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The whole event had a nice atmosphere, on which a number of people, including authors, have commented. Of course, nothing like this happens without a lot of behind the scenes work but the nice comments we’ve received are very gratifying.
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Wow, it sounds as though it was such fun! Well done, Vanessa!
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It was – on the organisational side, of course, you don’t have the chance to relax much but it was good to see that both public and authors enjoyed the event.
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It was a wonderful weekend – I’m already looking forward to next year’s festival!
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I’m so glad you enjoyed it. And thank you for all your help. We couldn’t have done it without people like you hosting the authors.
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Speaking as one of the authors I can say it was super! Also that the organisation – of which Vanessa was one of the leading lights – was top notch.
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I am blushing virtually (and actually) as I read your comment! But I’m so pleased you enjoyed it. It really makes it all worthwhile.
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It all sounds great:) I am hoping we can finally be out of Italy by next year and come along too.
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Yes, I hope you can be there next year. The weather was foul on the Saturday but it didn’t seem to dampen people’s enthusiasm.
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Well done, Vanessa. It sounds like a super event. Keep up the good work!
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It was hard work but people seem to have enjoyed it. The authors did, too, or so they say!
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Congratulations on mounting such a super event. It sounded like a huge success – I only wish I could’ve attended but was in the UK. Next year I’ll be there if at all possible.
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Thanks, Sue. It seems to have gone down well. Maybe next year you could do something for us?
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Hi Vanessa, Sorry I’ve only just caught up with your response to my comment. I’d be very happy to give a talk next year, on autobiographical writing for instance, if you think that would go down well.
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I’ll pass it on, Sue. I won’t actually be involved next year because of many other commitments – not least a family wedding around the time of the festival. However, I will give all your details to the organisers.
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