Burnham-On-Sea Book Festival will be running a free bus service around Burnham and Highbridge on Saturday (April 23rd) and giving away a limited number of tickets to workshops for those who would like to go, but perhaps can’t afford it.Â
The first ever Burnham-On-Sea Book Festival will see over 20 events taking place, including readings, workshops and panel talks, on Friday 22nd April and Saturday 23rd April in The Princess Theatre and Burnham-On-Sea library.
Organiser Lewis Coleman says:Â “We had a meeting with local arts organisation, Seed Sedgemoor, who suggested both the bus and some free workshop tickets and they offered to commission it.”
“Our job from the off has been to try and make this as accessible as possible, whilst also sustaining it to ensure we can continue.”
“We want to support local writers, the library and local arts scene, but perhaps most important of all is making our events open to as many people as possible.”
The 16-seater bus has been dubbed by the team as the ‘Book Festival Express’ and will run all day Saturday 23rd April on two routes, one to Highbridge and one around the wider Burnham area. Routes and schedules are shown below:
Free Burnham Book Festival Bus on Saturday:
“We feel books and creativity are so important to us, we want to support as many people as we can to come along,” added co-organiser Mike Price.
“Books are not just the building blocks in our education, but they’re also important for mental health and wellbeing.”
Seed have commissioned 20 tickets to any workshop. This includes:  Illustration: Creating Magical Creatures (children 6 – 12); Queen’s Jubliee Writing for Kids (6 – 16); Poetry Workshop with Tara Arkle (all ages – more suitable for older children and adults); River, Rhyne and Sea: Creative Writing (all ages – more suitable for older children and adults); Getting Started with Kindle Direct Publishing; Promoting Your Book with Sam Carr; and How to Sell Your Book with Emily Goodman.
For anyone interested see the website for more detail www.burnhambookfest.co.uk or email info@burnhambookfest.co.uk
“We will also be giving away lots of books and related goodies on the day, including book tokens, thanks to Sam Carr, our bookseller,” Lewis says. “There’s been a real sense of people wanting to help the festival get off the ground. We can’t wait to see the events and chat all things books!”
