It is with a heavy heart that the time has come to cancel this festival until further notice. Of course this will not come as a surprise to anyone, given the state of the nation right now in terms of lockdowns. I have postponed the festival twice now and I feel that it is no longer viable to hang on any longer given the current climate. And we are not the only ones either. The whole Creative Arts industry is affected and artists of all kinds, including writers, have retreated to online presentations.
I have taken the decision not to have this festival online, as I think that we will be pretty well zoomed out over the next little while and I don’t believe it’s as valuable as face-to-face events in person.
From an organiser’s point of view, cancelling festivals which have been growing in popularity, like ours has, and which are much needed networking and educational events for writers in a lonely profession, is very sad. Not to mention, the work that went into preparing it. This not only includes the administrators, but also the wonderful work in preparing for the festival, put in by the invited writers. who were keen to present to us. They have always been generously sharing with us, passing on the baton, so