thoughts on ewf

So the Emerging Writers’ Festival has been and gone. The festival sold out which is pretty amazing, though they re-opened door sales at about midday on Saturday so I think most people who wanted to go and left it to the last minute still got access. David Ryding, the Assistant Directors and all the volunteers put on an excellent and interesting festival. I was impressed.

Programming
I thought the programming was really diverse and interesting for it - the focus was firmly on the craft of writing and covered a real variety of genres, including theatre, lit fic, poetry, comedy writing, zines, performance and comics. And there was a good mix of panels, workshops and conversations.

One of my complaints about the MWF is that the pricing doesn’t allow me to pop into different sessions and discover new writers and ideas, but the weekend pass system of the EWF did, and it was great. (Unfortunately though I didn’t get to as much as I wanted to because I had panels on the Saturday and the zine fair on Sunday.)

A few of the panels got a bit contentious (sadly I missed them!) which means people were pretty engaged with the topics. And by all reports most panels had a lot of discussion going on in them, by the panellists and audience. Like I said, the variety of stuff on really seemed to work.

I thought having a final session where people can Q&A the festival director and suggest ideas for next year was an awesome idea, but sadly it seems like David Ryding and I were the only ones as he was the only person who turned up! (I was packing down at the zine fair.) I guess everyone put their suggestions onto the feedback forms…

Venue
The Town Hall is a pretty amazing venue but I still think its one failing is that it feels all closed off and inaccessible. The Porticoe Room was a central meeting point but it didn’t seem to be used much by festival-goers. The Town Hall doesn’t really encourage lounging around and mingling; it’s so formal. I loved the Scrabble and 48 Hour Play Generator at the BMW Edge though. That’s a great venue.

Festival Hub
The festival bar, FAD Gallery, was an awesome idea and made up for the lack of hanging out points at the Town Hall. On both days the bar was full of festival people, it was really fun and I met lots more people there than at the EWF. Some people complained about its vicinity to the Town Hall and I agree that it felt like a bit of a pain, but the bar was so cosy and writerly that I think it was worth it - plus I had some really good conversations with people walking to and from the bar, so it wasn’t all bad.

Ambassador’s Program
I think this was an awesome idea and seeemed pretty successful. A few ambassadors were more prominent than others but I guess you gotta expect that. Their session ‘Seven Enviable Lines’ was the festival highlight for me. It was really entertaining to hear their different (and same) points of view and advice… which included ‘don’t get drunk and be a wanker at public events’ (doh), ‘don’t wear your pajamas to work’ (doh) and ‘always be prepared for panels’ (doh).

Vibe
The atmosphere at the festival (and bar) was really vibrant and relaxed. I like these smaller festivals because they are all about discussion and the exchange of ideas, rather than the cult of the author, so it’s easy to be apart of the action.

Zine Fair
The zine fair was sadly much quieter this year than it was last year. I don’t know if that’s because of the cold or because it was Mother’s Day or because everyone ziney was at the festival panels but it just wasn’t buzzing.

‘It was good.’

L.