Chrys Salt - Dancing on a Rock

From Chrys Salt

“Chrys Salt, a wonderful and unique poet, reaches her zenith. The past comes alive again, where dreams and desperations come hand in hand. Her work is poignant, full of anger, desire, and dreams that entice you to enter that world. This book touched me deeply.”

Bernard Kops
Dramatist, Poet, Novelist

From The Bronze Age to recent conflict, Chrys Salt's new collection explores distillations of memory, moments, lives, experience - the image of a fossil dancing on a rock reminding us of those things that are recorded, yet transient. Dancing on a Rock is Chrys’ fourth full poetry collection. Her work is widely published, has appeared in anthologies all over the world, been performed on BBC Radio 3 and 4, UK wide, in the USA, Canada, France, Germany and Finland. It has been translated into French and Arabic and is currently being translated into Hebrew. In 2014 her limited edition pamphlet Weaver of Grass (Hattericks House 2013, artwork Deirdre Carlisle) was shortlisted for the Callum Macdonald Memorial Award. She is a great supporter of Indigo Dreams and a frequent contributor (and winner!) to Reach Poetry magazine. IDP also published Chrys' previous collection Grass

90 pages of poetry, Dancing on a Rock can be ordered now online here. A taster of the poems included may be read there too. It's always good to work with Chrys and you will be able to catch her reading at a variety of places - a wonderful time will be had by all. Some venues below and many more to come.

March 7th/8th: Bath Literature Festival 
March 7th: Poetry Workshop 1:00pm – 4:00pm Holburne Museum
March 8th: Introducing Annette Badland who performs her script based on Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth 1:00pm – 2:00pm Guildhall
March 8th: Launch of new collection Dancing on a Rock with Rachael Boast. 5:00pm – 6:00pm Guildhall
April 14th: 'Whose Voice is it Anyway?' with novelist Margaret Elphinstone 7.30pm Scottish Writers Centre, Glasgow.
March 30th: Dancing on a Rock. Brioche, Hampstead 7.00pm
April 21st: reading from Dancing on a Rock with Bernard Kops 7.30pm Bar des Arts Guildford
April 23rd: Dancing on a Rock 7.30pm The Royal British Legion, The Quay, Wivenhoe:
May 2nd: Dancing on a Rock (time TBA) The Bank Bookshop, Wigtown, S.W Scotland.


Chrys was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for Services to The Arts. She receives this on Friday 6th February. Huge congrats from all of us Chrys - and don't forget that new hat!

Reader's Delight

This one brought to our attention by Commonty reader Colin Tennant....

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Down With Gravity Exhibition At Bladnoch Creamery

From Sid Ambrose, DG Unlimited Area Arts Convenor for Wigtownshire

A new art gallery recently opened its doors at the former Bladnoch Creamery near Wigtown. Unit 3 gallery is the brainchild of Steve Dowling who is best-known for making the strongest stoves in the world via his company Dowling Stoves. Gallery 3 is situated in a small corner of a monolithic collection of buildings which have a decidedly Bohemian feel. This comes from some of the buildings being semi-derelict and also partly colonised by local artists including a potter, artistic blacksmiths and a small but perfectly formed recording studio.

Gallery 3 is hosting its first exhibition called “Down with Gravity” which features the work of Kinetic Sculptor David Williams. Having viewed the exhibition in late December l was fascinated with the variety of moving machines which flipped, turned, bounced and carried ball bearings around escheresque constructions. Monreith based David originally hails from the Black Country and some people may be familiar with his Meccano maquettes which are featured in window displays throughout Wigtownshire.

Down with Gravity is a free exhibition running from 10 am to 4pm through to the end of January, Steve Dowling intends to curate bi-monthly exhibitions in this new formed gallery space which in his words will “stretch the mind a bit and visitors are advised to expect the unexpected”.

Given its proximity to Wigtown, Scotland’s book town and the jet black peat stained waters of the River Bladnoch which runs past the Gallery, l would highly recommend a visit for those interested in a leisurely and enlightening day down in deepest Wigtownshire.

More information about the gallery and inaugural exhibition can be found on www.unit3gallery.co.uk.

Oriental Dance Exercise Classes in Wigtown

From Petra Stetina

We moved to the Machars a year ago and I have been doing a weekly ODE (Oriental Dance Exercise) class ever since. I am not very good with advertising so its usually just me and a couple of dedicated ladies, so I would love to reach a wider audience because IT IS SOOOOOO MAGICAL the way these movements ( circles, spirals, 8,s, etc) up and down spine and extremities, enhance happiness and well-being of body mind and spirit!

Of course they do, because these are the movements of the UNIVERSE! the movements of the ATOMS! i can only strongly strongly recommend it!we move tooooooo little in our so called "civilised" society-this is EASY, MEDITATIVE, REPETiTIVE,(no choreography-no memorising or counting steps,as this distracts from the essence of the movement) it  also gives you a six pack after some time, is a really good exercise for all the  internal organs(womens especially!) strenghtens core muscles, improves balance, coordination, posture, breathing, flexibility, AND JOY de VIVRE!

Run a bookshop in Scotland's National Book Town!

From the Wigtown Book Festival 

Image: Colin Tennant

The Open Book is a six-month project run by Wigtown Festival Company. The project will invite members of the public to apply to help run a bookshop in Scotland's National Book Town in Wigtown for a period of between 2 and 6 weeks and to blog about their experience. Training will be given in bookselling, and help will be provided by Wigtown's community of booksellers, who will also offer practical and moral support. 

"Old-fashioned" bookshops have never been more under threat yet they have also never been more valued by bibliophiles. How do traditional bookshops thrive and survive in a digital world? How does the fantasy of being a bookseller compare to the reality? The Open Book is a matchless experience, offering participants the opportunity to discover what it's like to run a bookshop in Scotland's National Book Town, and to contribute to a unique literary community by helping to sustain one of its bookstores. While in Wigtown, guest booksellers will be asked to blog about their experience and consider the role of the bookshop and the bookseller in the 21st century.

Interested in finding out more? 

Please contact theopenbook@wigtownbookfestival.com

More details here

McMillan's Gallovidian Encyclopedia

From the DG Unlimited team

A wonderful journey through the heart and soul of D&G – Wigtown Book Festival has just launched McMillan's Gallovidian Encyclopaedia by poet and author Hugh McMillan.
The book is the first ever commissioned by the festival and was funded by Fresh Start for the Arts, a Dumfries and Galloway Chamber of the Arts (DGU) initiative dedicated to supporting the region’s creative sector. The idea was to produce a 21st century response to the Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopaedia which was first published by John Mactaggart, in 1824, but was temporarily withdrawn from publication the following year.

McMillan, like Mactaggart, introduces readers to unusual people and curious tales (tall, true and indeterminate). Though his book refers to history and tradition, it is predominantly one person's take on the landscape he's lived his life in and on the people with whom he's shared it. In fact, Commonty readers will doubtless know some of the people mentioned. A poet and retired history teacher from Penpont, Hugh has followed Mactaggart’s example in gathering tales, recording conversations, selecting and writing poetry and researching the cultural diversity of his native region.

The work is presented in an encyclopaedia format, makes reference to idioms of the day, and includes much poetry. It covers topics including:
• Anthony Hopkins Bench syndrome
• Anwoth – Village of the damned
• Bank Managers and the British Union of Fascists
• Love and death
• The Ludgin Hoose Cat

There are stories and anecdotes of all kinds; one concerns a local GP who claimed to be Dr Bodkin, former personal physician to Tsar Nicholas II which, if true, made him at least 123 years. Hugh said: “Like the original encyclopaedia, I hope this volume is unique, full of fun and good poetry. Mactaggart would still recognise some things about the region today, others would be utterly foreign to him: Mactaggart's Galloway is not my Galloway. We are both in perfect agreement, however, that it is a weird and magical place.”

The book delights in building a shooglie layer of tales on others from earlier times – capturing many aspect of the region’s history alongside the testimony of living people. Cathy Agnew, Chair of DG Unlimited, said: “Our whole aim is to promote the region’s arts, heritage and creative people. Hugh’s book embraces all three goals in a single, wonderfully entertaining piece of work which captures the lives, loves and landscapes of south west Scotland and its people – past and present.”
The book is published by Roncadora Press and costs £15.

Visual Arts at Wigtown Book Festival

From Wigtown Book Festival

Claudia Zeiske

ARTocracy

County Buildings, The Cinema

Wednesday 1st October 2014

13:30

£4.00

Claudia Zeiske is the founding director of Deveron Arts, the organisation that has turned the small Aberdeenshire town of Huntly into a venue for award-winning public art. She talks to Jan Hogarth of the arts production company Wide Open about her work and her book ARTocracy (written with Nuno Sacramento).

Natalie McIlroy

The Galloway Pippin Project

The Orchard Studio at 31 South Main Street

Wednesday 1st October 2014

10:00

The Zurich-based Scottish environmental artist Natalie McIlroy has created a homage to the Galloway Pippin, an ancient apple variety that originated in Wigtown in the late 1200s.  Throughout the festival, visitors will be able to visit the Pippin HQ, an installation that will also be the home to 31 maiden Galloway Pippin trees available for local gardens.  Natalie will be planting and documenting the trees in their new homes throughout the town.  Visit Natalie in her studio, open daily (times shown on the door). 

Anupa Gardner

Spring Fling Artist-in-Residence 2014/15

The Bowling Pavilion

Wednesday 1st October 2014

10:00

This is the sixth year that the festival has hosted an artist-inresidence in association with Scotland's largest arts and crafts open studios event, Spring Fling.  Originally from India, Anupa Gardner studies at Edinburgh College of Art and graduated with a Master of Arts in Visual Communication in 2008.  She has since been working in Edinburgh as an illustrator.  Anupa will be based at the Bowling Pavilion and will host a Meet the Artist event at 7pm on Saturday 27 September.  Studio open daily.  

The Stove

Trading Journeys '14

Wigtown Harbour

Saturday 27th September 2014

10:00

Dumfries-based artists' collective The Studio presents a new commission for the 2014 Wigtown Book Festival, supported by Homecoming 2014.  With its Harbour and location at the lowest fording point of the River Bladnoch, Wigtown was at one time part of a major network of land and sea routes, including a pilgrim way to Whithorn.  Inspired by this history, the event responds to these trading routes. 

Trading Journeys: The Stove travels to Wigtown

From The Stove

The Stove Network is delighted to present a new arts event at Wigtown Book Festival 2014. Historically, Wigtown was an important county town. With its harbor and location at the lowest fording point of the River Bladnoch, Wigtown was at one time part of a major important network of land and sea routes, including a pilgrim route to Whithorn. The layout of the town is notable for its large market square, a reflection of its importance in the cattle trade in the medieval period. Taking this history as a starting point The Stove has devised a programme that breathes life back into these trading routes.

Travelling
Artists from across the region are travelling to Wigtown following new and old routes to Wigtown by boat, horse and pedal-power. 

Arriving
Alice Francis and Uula Jero will be setting up camp for the afternoon in Southfield Park where there will be workshops and the opportunity craft a spoon mould to be cast in metal  later in the day. 

Parading
Once the boats arrive into the harbour and process up into the town with Mark Zygadlo, they will be joined by Uula, Alice, a drumming band, horse and cart and pedal-powered foundry.

Making
At the corner of the town hall the mobile foundry will be lit and spoons cast using charcoal brought by the boats from Creetown Primary. 

Celebrating
A surprise performance closes Trading Journeys.

For full details of the event head to our website here

The Dream Manifesto - Swallow Theatre Summer School

From Carolyn Yates

The Swallow Theatre

SUMMER SCHOOL

From August 4 to 8 inclusive, 10am to 4pm each day.

Age range: 9 plus               
Cost £10 for the week.

VENUE: The County Buildings, Wigtown

The Dream Manifesto

This summer, the world will change…

The adults are gone, and they’re not coming back. It’s time for a new world order – the young people are in charge. You have been specially selected to join a committee that will craft a new future for our world. You are the politicians, the workers, the journalists, the lawyers, the judges… You have the power to re-design the world. What will you do? Dream big; the future is in your hands.

Join us for one week this summer to create an original piece of theatre with director Victoria Beesley. You will use drama and movement techniques to devise a theatre show that will be performed to an audience at the end of the week. We hope you can be part of creating The Dream Manifesto.

Victoria Beesley is a director and performer based in Glasgow. She is Artistic Director of Terra Incognita Arts, an organisation that specialises in creating documentary theatre and community arts projects. She has also worked with a range of Scottish-based companies most recently including Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Toonspeak Young People’s Theatre and Stellar Quines Theatre Company.

WEAR COMFY WORKSHOP CLOTHES

BRING A PACKED LUNCH, £10 and your form signed by a parent or guardian.

See you there!

To apply contact Carolyn Yates, Literature Development, Dumfries and Galloway

Wigtown Festival Company, County Buildings, Wigtown, DG8 9JH

E Mail: carolyn@literaturedevelopment.org

Phone: 01988 402036                    
Mobile: 07773797495

Literary Arts Animateurs

Wigtown Festival Company is looking to commission 4 Literary Arts Animateurs resident in Dumfries and Galloway to assist the Literature Development Officer for the region in nurturing and developing writers in their local area. They will help improve local and regional networks connecting artists and writers, support the creation of high quality text based work and sustain and nurture local individuals, groups and organisations that promote and demonstrate engagement with literary activities.

They will do this by:
• working as part of a team, led by the literature development officer, to identify local need, build local partnerships and run at least 2 literary activities in their geographic area
• communicating with the area arts hub conveners about local literary development needs and priorities
• providing regular news and information for the literature development website (dgwordplace) and associated social media
• supporting local authors to hold book launches
• identifying local, sustainable and good value IT facilities and expertise to pilot the live streaming of literary events across the region from their area
• creating local networking events, including opportunities to watch live streamed literature events from other areas and events linked to Southlight magazine launches
• aiding contribution to, distribution and sales of Southlight magazine
• supporting activities that promote the Scots language and Gaelic in their areas
• attending the regioan’s literature forum meetings to network and provide information about area activities.
Timeframe: 1st July 2014 to 1st January 2015

 FlipBookKit from fourworlds on Vimeo.

Criteria for appointing Literary Arts Animateurs
Applicants must have:
• experience of key role(s) in running a writing group in their area of Dumfries and Galloway
• knowledge of and links with local organisations (including libraries) offering venues suitable for literary events
• expertise in organising local and national public events for readers and writers in Dumfries and Galloway
• good communication skills, including IT and social media
• a publishing track record as a writer, publisher or editor
• Knowledge of the local and national bodies that support writers and readers.
Fee: The fee for each of the 4 animatures is £500 (inc. VAT). There is no additional travel or expense budget.

Application by E mail with relevant curriculum vitae by 5.00pm 6th June to:
Anne Barclay Festival Manager, anne@wigtownbookfetsival.com Telephone: 01988 402036

Wigtown Festival Company, County Buildings, Wigtown, DG8 9JH
The successful applicants will be informed by Friday 14th June.

Words Wisdom Whisky in Wigtown

This weekend, Wigtown is the place to be as the Wigtown Spring Festival kicks off. 

This year the Wigtown Spring Festival has had funding from Homecoming Scotland 2014 enabling the Association of Wigtown Booksellers to hold events during every weekend in May. Details and an on line programme are available from the website www.wigtown-booktown.co.uk

I’m attaching the cover of the programme. The festival starts with the Writers’ Gathering on Friday 2nd May.

Events over the weekend include:

Spoken Word Slam - Tonight!

Wild, witty, wise or wry, writers compete against each other to win £50 cash prize and title of Wigtown Slam Champ.  Whether rhyming, rapping or raving, all styles of prose and poetry are welcome.  Licensed bar. £5 entry/£3.50 per performer.  6pm - 9pm. Last minute tickets still available, please telephone 01988 403 222 or call into the festival box office at the County Buildings.

D & G Archaeology with Andrew Nicholson

Byre Books

Saturday 3rd May 2014

13:00

Tickets £4

WALK with Robert Twigger

The Bookshop

Sunday 4th May 2014

12:00

Tickets £4 

How can walking add to the sum of happiness? Writer Robert Twigger's expeditions have included crossing Egypt's western desert on foot.  He talks about his e-book Walk, which looks at the power of walking to inspire and bring peace and explores ways everyone can benefit.  Twigger is a winner of the William Hill Award for Sports Book of the Year and author of the critically acclaimed Red Nile, a biography of the world's longest river.

For the full programme of events head to the Book Festival events page here

Machar's Library Update

Following the Commonty's earlier reports on the state of Wigtownshire's libraries, (previous posts here and here) and a groundswell of community support something of a u-turn is underway to protect the Wigtown and Whithorn libraries.

"Robust opposition from the library users of Wigtown and Whithorn have forced Dumfries and Galloway Council to shelve plans to cut costs by slashing the opening hours in both facilities.

Compelling business cases for increasing or retaining opening hours presented to the council by the two communities seems to have secured a u-turn in policy and, on Tuesday, the council’s Community and Customer Services Committee look set to rubberstamp opening hours for Wigtown of 28 and allow Whithorn to retain its current 12 hours.

“We are pleased too that Council officers have publicly stated that Wigtown County Buildings opening hours will not be reduced and that the iconic building will continue to be properly maintained.

“As our town states: Let Wigtown Flourish!”

Whithorn Community Council secretary Julia Muir Watt added: “The community council is delighted that 12 hour opening has been retained for Whithorn Library. We understand that the council has to cut costs, but we had looked at the council case for cutting hours and decided that it would be more rational to attempt to reduce heating and energy costs, which seem very high. As the building is owned by the Common Good Fund, that may be an advantage, when it comes to looking at energy efficiency measures. We also hope to work with the libraries service to look at usage and ways in which the library can appeal to more people, including young people.”

Full story in the Galloway Gazette

DG Arts Festival looking for Western partners

Also up from the DG Arts Festival team this week:

SCOTLAND’S largest rural multi-artform festival is looking for partners to expand its annual programme in western Galloway.

The move comes after Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival ended its 10-year partnership with West Fest, Wigtownshire’s equivalent of the festival. West Fest decided to call it a day this year and will no longer be supporting events in the west of the region.

In 2004, organisers of West Fest separated from the festival and took on responsibility for programming in Wigtownshire and went on to hold well-attended arts events each year. Funding issues and a lack of volunteer support has forced the West Fest committee to wind-up the operation. With council support and the current West Fest committee, however, the Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival has developed a new programme of events for this year and is seeking new partnerships to expand its Wigtownshire arts programme.

The Wrigley Sisters will be playing this years festival at the Bladnoch Distillery

Arts Festival programme director, Peter Renwick, said: “For the first time in 10 years we have extended our programme into the west of the region. “It is vital, wherever we programme, that we work with local partners who can help support events, identify acts they think will work in the area and help build audiences. We typically work with volunteers who run venues and village halls, represent community groups or are active promoters of the arts. “We should welcome anyone who’s willing to pull together ideas for events and performances in Wigtownshire during the festival and urge them to get in contact.

The Outside Track, who will be performing at the Ryan Centre, Stranraer 

Pam Pumphrey, chair of Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival said: “We see this as the start of a long-term partnership. We have been delighted with the support we have had from many Wigtownshire-based organisations in the pasts, with special mention to Sid Ambrose, Wigtownshire Arts Hub convener; Stranraer Music Town; Bladnoch Distillery; The Swallow Theatre; Wigtown Book sellers; Newton Stewart Cinema and The Ryan Centre, Stranraer.”

The Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival takes place between May 16 to 25. This year’s highlights in the west of the region include a performance by the Wriggly Sisters at Bladnoch; Outside Track at the Ryan Centre and The Primrose Piano Quartet in Newton Stewart.

The Fringe programme includes The Wild Myrtles, Margaret Bennett, Tom Morton and The Two Lilies.

Full report available in the Galloway Gazette here

WagTongues at Wigtown

On Sunday, 6th October The Writers’ Collective, a new venture that creates opportunities for the county's writers to sell their work, is launching itself with an all-star event at Wigtown during the final day of the Book Festival.

It's WagTongues, and will be at the Machars Inititaive Centre, 26, South Main Street, from 10am to 4pm. A pop-up bookshop, selling superb publications created in Dumfries and Galloway, there will also be pop-up readings from prize-winning writers Hugh McMillan, Vivien Jones, David Mark Williams and JoAnne McKay; from Sally Hinchcliffe, whose novel Out of a Clear Sky was Radio 4's Book at Bedtime, and from other local authors and some surprise guests.

If you want to talk books, hear books, see books and touch books (but no licking) then get along during the day. Wine, chat, gossip and the chance to own your own Moob Hat, created by the Paper-Sculptor-in-Residence.

The money from the books sold will go direct (no commission) to the authors themselves – and any donations from the readings will go to to Arthritis Care in Scotland. We're good guys.

If you’re a local author who’d like to be included, get in touch with the Writers' Collective sharp-ish . E-mail:  wagtongues@aol.com

More details here: http://thefankle.net/about/wagtongues-at-wigtown/

Adventures in Wigtown - Kindness, Camper Vans and the Random Book Club

The Commonty has been hanging out in Wigtown this weekend - the town has come alive, and hums with the comings and goings of literary lovers, locals, authors, artists, dogs and their walkers, and everyone in between. Some of our highlights have included Bernadette Russell's 366 Days of Kindness - if you haven't heard of her year of being kind to strangers be sure and check out her website

Here's Bernadette talking about her project

On one of my many coffee refuel's I found myself in the Festival Club listening to chat about the Random Book Club - does what it says on the tin, membership for a year buys you one book a month, hand picked from The Book Shop's shelves and mailed to you.

"Do you think Amazon will notice the lipstick on the collar of your dust-jacket? Or the smell of aftershave on your spine?

Of course not. Amazon doesn’t really love you. But we do."
Membership costs £59 - read more on their website

I also clambered into a camper van with two complete strangers quite willingly and sat in the dark casually observing the passers-by - Camper Obscura, a travelling pair of photographers all the way from Plymouth - sharing knowledge about photography with everyone (and photographing them all in the process).

And it's only day three! There's a full seven days worth of excitement to catch - the festival programme is available online here

Voices from the Phone Box lands at the Book Festival

From Katie Anderson
Part sculptural installation, part audio collection, Voices from the Phone Box was initially commissioned as part of the EAFS shindig that took over our region last month. 

Now the project has relocated to Wigtown as part of the Wigtown Book Festival, and has taken up residence in two phone boxes, one in Bladnoch, the other in Causeway End. There is also an exchange point for the two boxes tucked away in the mysterious Time Machine - a separate installation work that has seen part of the County Buildings transformed into a space age portal to the future.

The work seeks to engage with that forgotten cultural artefact, the K6 red telephone box - vanishing into and from hedgerows across the country.

Conversations gathered reveal intimate relationships with place - personal histories intertwined with the everyday. 

Pause for a moment, and listen.

"I Belong 
Wigtown. Port William. Whithorn. Newton Stewart. Sorbie. Mochrum. Elrig. Windy Hill.  Garlieston. Isle of Whithorn. 


Bearded Ham. Something primal. Traffic Lights. Invisible people. Hairdressers. I was ay’ wantin t be a l’rry driver. Mountains of Mourne. 

The flying butcher. Magic Hour. The kindness of folk.  There was always plenty o’ work. It’s all gone no’. BOS 648. Still living in the past here. A modern life. I never even knew Whithorn existed... 


I’ll never be a local."

Thank you to everyone who has given me some time in the past few weeks to contribute a voice for the work, without you it would be meaningless.
For more information please head to my blog 

Book Festival hits Wigtown next Weekend

It's coming in on the wind to Wigtown this week - the Book Festival approaches. There are oodles of events on, but here is a bit of a flavour - check out the full programme for more details.

For the year of Natural Scotland, the book festival has (naturally) taken a Natural Wigtown theme - with events including Tim Dee (author of acclaimed The Running Sky) talking about his new book Four Fields telling the story of four fields in Montana, Zambia, Chernobyl and Cambridgeshire on the 30th September, and Rereading Nature: Walden by Henry David Thoreau, will be discussed by David Borthwick, Stuart Kelly and Ken Ilgunas on the 5th October.

For those still in a intrepid mood from yesterday's Nithraid in Dumfries - Jason Lewis will be talking about The Expedition, as the first man to circumnavigate the globe by human power alone over the course of 13 years on the 27th September.

With just less than a year until the independance referendum, Scotland 360 events will also be taking place throughout the festival including Lesley Riddoch's Blossom: A Journey Beyond Independence " offers a plain-speaking call to restore control to local communities and let a nation flourish."on Friday 4th October, and Andy Wightman, author of The Poor Had No Lawyers - Who Owns Scotland (And How they got it) is also on the bill for that day.

Also on the bill - Breakfast at Tiffany's is the Drive in Movie at Kirroughtree this year (sold out),and The Guyrope Gourmet's Cook School - campfire cuisine has gone gourmet, recipes will be talked through and the results eaten.

Spring Fling and Book Festival Artist-in-Residence Astrid Jaekel's studio will be based out of the County Buildings during the festival, and a meet the artist event is being held on the 28th. Discover the fundamentals of photography with the Camper Obscura will be by the County Buildings for the first weekend. The Archivist and Voices from the Phone Box, both projects from the EAFS festival will both be making appearances during the festival, so be sure to keep an eye open!

Tickets and more information can be found on the book festival website, the brochure (available locally or online here) or on the radios radio channel 87.7FM.