Organisers of the Isle of Wight Story Festival have announced that the 2024 event will take place between 15th-17th February at Quay Arts in Newport.
Hundreds of children and adults enjoyed this year’s event, which celebrated stories of all kinds with authors, theatre, music, illustrators and hands-on workshops. Families queued out the doors of Quay Arts and into the streets whilst waiting to get books signed by the likes of Horrible Histories star Simon Farnaby, who was promoting his book The Wizard in My Shed, and author/illustrator Laura Ellen Anderson at the IW Story Festival this February half term.
The annual festival, which is now in its fourth year, is well established with families of primary-aged children, but this year it ran an additional day aimed at teenagers.
Thursday’s events – subtitled A Different Beast – offered an eclectic mix of workshops from model-making and songwriting, to horrific makeup effects, introductory Dungeons and Dragons sessions and wordsmithing.
It also offered powerful drama in the form of Apollo Youth Theatre’s production of His Name is Zak and an equally thought-provoking session from novelist Julia Tuffs, whose books Hexed and Twice Hexed deal with themes of bullying and toxic masculinity.
Themes of inclusion continued on the Friday and Saturday of the festival with sessions from disability rights campaigner and former CBeebies presenter Cerrie Burnell, as well as Gareth Peter, who shared his book My Daddies.
There was a strong line-up of local authors and storytellers including award-winning Kieran Larwood, Neal Layton, Jules Marriner, Holly Medland, Sue Bailey, Debbie Webb and Peta Rainford.
In another innovation this year, the Quay Arts cafe hosted local musicians who entertained the crowds while they waited to have their books signed. Those on stage included Simon Whitworth, Black Daniels, Doug Alldred, The Solar Escape, JC Grimshaw and Platform One artists Amy Jolliffe and Ruby Bodenham.
Festival-goer Helen Smith said:
“It’s a fantastic event – we look forward to it every year. Big thanks to the organisers and volunteers that make it happen.”
IW Story Festival organiser Sue Bailey said
“We are so pleased that, at this year’s festival, we not only had a lot of fun but also heard some very important messages about identity and inclusivity.”
Ticket and lineup details for the IW Story Festival 2024 will be announced later this year.
