Daggers, Beer and Books – The Perfect Festival

I came over all ‘Old Peculier’ last week. Yes, that is how you spell ‘Peculier’ and I was in Harrogate at the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival. Before I go on and apropos to nothing other than widening your vocabulary, a peculier is an ecclesiastical district, parish, chapel or church outside the jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocese in which it is situated. In this case though, it relates to the sponsors and one of their very fine ales.

Sadly I wasn’t there long enough to sip on the beer of choice. I was only able to eek enough time off the Day Job for ‘Creative Thursday’, which was apparently the real reason the festival exists according to the Programme Chair, Denise Mina. I am sure that this is not entirely true but it was a cracker of a day.

 

 

Anyway, I thought I would explore why writers and readers seem to love festivals so much. I am going to consider, what is their purpose and give a bit of a review of the Festival I have just attended.

 

So why do we love festivals in the book world. I am not sure that there is a clear answer but I think the strongest one is that we can mix with our Tribe. These people at such events understand our reading and writing obsession. In these environments we are no longer the sad, lonely, nerdy outcast, we are the same as the others around us. We can relax and enjoy.

 

Sitting around the campfire listening to people tell stories is something which spans thousands of years and almost all cultures. We now sit in our individual houses, sometimes all with headphones on, watching and listening to our stories on the TV or the computer. This is, I think one of the reasons we (well me) have a guilty pleasure in watching Gogglebox on the TV. It is essentially watching people, watching other people tell stories. We love Gogglebox because it is great to at least watch the interaction between people who are interpreting stories, especially if we can’t go and be in a tribe doing the same thing.

 

It would seem that a Festival which brings us together to worship our interest, our love, our obsession, is a no brainer. I am a writer, I am reader and recently, I have been able to admit that I am a crime fiction lover. I perhaps I will come back to why I have only recently felt happy to admit this preference, as I really want to talk about this Festival today. It was during the process of ‘coming out’ as a Crime Fiction devotee that I came across The Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival and I was particularly drawn to Creative Thursday as I was seeking knowledge about how best to write in this genre.

 

 

Lets do a bit of a bullet point review here then:

 

Good Stuff

• It felt very welcoming – no us and them, with the famous writers, publishers, agents mingling with the beginner folk.
• Everyone was happy to share – writing tips, the woes and joys of being a writer, the process to publication (or not!) etc. In fact the only thing they didn’t want to share was their beer!
• Creative Thursday actually gave you time to do some real learning and have a go at real pitching (If you wanted to) to the Dragons Pen – hats off to all that pitched, you were awesome.
• The workshop leaders for Creative Thursday were very professional – special hats off to Greg and Kate Mosse who delivered one of the best workshops I have been to in a long while on any subject, particularly as the ‘Techy Guys’ deconstructed their AV and rebuilt it whilst they were delivering.
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The venue was very Agatha Christie – a definite atmosphere. Well, I suppose it should be, as it is where she hid in 1926 when she disappeared for 10 days with much scandal.

• There were lots of different rooms and tents with over 80 authors speaking or involved in some way on the stages.
• It had its own bookshop – what’s not to like.
• Lunch was very tasty – thank you!

Less Good

• There is no parking at the venue (all the space is taken up with the Festival) so not so great for people with mobility issues.
• It wasn’t very clear what was happening in the schedule for Creative Thursday. It appears the only way you have any idea about the way the day works is if you have been before.
• I personally would have liked the bookshop to have had more writing tools, more text books about writing and perhaps an area where you could sample technical aids and software that is now available for authors.
• The prebooking forms for next year were not available until after Thursday. Those of us that had to leave have now chase this up afterwards.

The real proof in the pudding (although I think that is another festival in Gloucestershire), is “would I go back?” It scared me, inspired me but most importantly, I found my tribe. I will be back