A brand new festival for Rochester will launch in July under the banner of the Rochester Literature Festival.
With the inaugural Festival planned to coincide with National Poetry Day in October 2013, a number of fringe events will take place beforehand, the first of which is The Garden Poetry Party, on Sunday 22nd July, at Eastgate House Gardens.
Celebrated Medway Poet Bill Lewis will be joined by storyteller and founding RLF (Rochester Literature Festival) member Philip Kane, The James Worse Public Address Method and singer songwriters Abigail Zeiring-Delmado and Didi Bergman. Comperes for the afternoon will be stand up comics CO Jones and Mat Wills.
Among the entertainment will be at least one open mic session and a children’s creative corner, with more activities available for visitors to join in with.The event will take place between 12 noon and 4pm and there will be refreshments available to buy, courtesy of Dot Cafe, Sonya’s Cupcakes and The Cocktail Club.
Should it rain, the event will be held inside Eastgate House itself. A Medway Archive exhibition entitled ‘Metal Men of Medway’ is taking place inside at the same time, which looks at the stories of the art and memorials of Medway’s streets.
A number of book and craft stalls will also be in the garden. Enquiries on how to secure one can be made to rochesterlitfest@gmail.com
Promotions Director Jaye Nolan outlined the aims of the festival: “The Rochester Literature Festival wishes to bring writers, performers, directors, producers and film makers together, anyone, in fact, whose work has creative writing at its heart.
We’ll be looking for challenges and events, and the chance to collaborate with likeminded folk.
Rochester has a fantastic reputation for festivals incorporating dance, music and art, and, of course, our most celebrated author, Charles Dickens. We’re sure he would approve of a dedicated literature festival, especially one that will bring Medway’s huge variety of writers, old and new, to the fore.”
To keep up to date with all the news from the Rochester Literature Festival, visit their website here http://rochesterlitfest.com/ follow them on Twitter @RochLitFest and like their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/RochesterLiteratureFestival
Creatabot 