Welcome to this year’s Festival. All events will take place at the Knighton Community Centre. Tickets can be pre-booked through the Eventbrite website, including for the free events. Tickets can also be purchased on the door.

Friday 10th October

2pm Imaginary Landscapes – Chris Tutton and Lucy Nolan – poetry and harp recital

The Festival begins with a special event devoted to music and poetry. “An exquisite fusion of words and music” Imaginary Landscapes brings together the spellbinding poetry of Chris Tutton, acclaimed author, performer and raconteur with the semi improvised harp brilliance of international award-winning harpist, Lucy Nolan.

Described by Ned Sherrin as “the master of the short poem” Chris brings his Award-winning words to life with wit and lyrical depth in this captivating performance while Lucy’s boundary pushing performance enchants and surprises. Together they have graced stages from the Hay Festival to the Royal Albert Hall, delighting audiences at sold-out shows across the UK.

Tickets for this event are £7, includes a glass of wine.

6 pm Prize giving ceremony for the short story and poetry competition

6.30 pm Meet the Artists Event: Art Exhibition – Borderlands featuring work from Richard Gilbert, Stuart Roper and Celia de Serra in the Comm Gallery Space 

The Festival art exhibition this year features three talented artists, Richard Gilbert, Celia de Serra and Stuart Roper and their individual and very different interpretations of the Borderlands landscape. The exhibition begins on Friday 10th October with a special Meet the Artists event with an opportunity to speak to the artists and discuss their process.

FREE EVENT

7.30pm Flicks in the Sticks presents: Warpaint -Women at War

Margy Kinmonth’s feature documentary shines a light on the trailblazing role of women war artists, on the front lines round the world, championing the female perspective on conflict through art and asking:  when it’s life or death, what do women see that men don’t? Traditionally a male domain, war art by women has been largely unrecognised. Until now…

Culture breaks the taboo, crosses borders – tells the truth to power. Artists featured include Zhanna Kadyrova, Linda Kitson, Shirin Neshat, Rachel Reckitt, Dame Laura Knight, Lee Miller, Nina Berman, Marcelle Hanselaar, Jananne Al-Ani, Assil Diab, Doris Zinkeisen, Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press, Maggi Hambling, Cornelia Parker, Dame Rachel Whiteread, Maya Lin, and including the work of Anne Desmet R.A., Samar Hussaini, and featuring Dame Penelope Lively, Charlotte Johnstone and Ami Bouhassane.

A female cast of contributors and crew makes this film a unique undertaking – telling vital truths in turbulent times.

Tickets £6 on the door

Saturday 11th October

10 am to 4 pm Arts, Crafts and Books Market in the Main Hall – free entry

There will be a wide range of stalls selling new and second-hand books, plus arts and crafts for sale. Café will be open for lunch, tea and cakes.

9.30 am Journalling Workshop with Pat Herriott

Pat has been writing in journals for nearly 50 years and looks forward to sharing her pleasure in journalling, perhaps inspiring you to begin journalling or develop what you are already doing.  Please bring a journal or an exercise book, pens, pencils, whatever suits you and see what happens.  She suggests bringing some cash, too, as there could well be some journals for sale at the workshop.

NB This is a FREE event but must be booked in advance as numbers are limited.

10.30 am Kathy Biggs: Attention All Shipping

When you’re feeling lost at sea, what will it take to guide you home?

Grace lives with her father Jack on their crumbling family farm in Wales. Jack, who has dementia, lost his son Michael in a tragic accident at sea many years ago. Each night he is soothed by an old recording of the shipping forecast, lulled to sleep by the belief that Michael is safe. And while he sleeps, Grace wonders how she ended up back here, caring for her father rather than living her own life.

One day, a young woman turns up on their farm, claiming to be Michael’s daughter. But how can this be, seeing as he died before she was born?

A tender, hopeful novel about losing and finding family. Join father and daughter Jack and Grace on their journey from the Welsh valleys to Whitby, as they search for the missing piece of their family…and themselves.

‘Kathy Biggs reminds me of Alan Bennett… she walks the fine line between humour and utter sadness in a way that is very rare’ Jan Newton

Tickets £5

12 pm Peter Stevenson: Welsh Folk Tales of Coast and Sea and Illustrated Welsh Folk Tales for Young and Old

Peter Stevenson tells the folk tales of the Welsh coast and sea with crankies, moving illustrated scrolls turned by handles in a large wooden box, movies from the days before electricity and cinema. Hear tales of drunken mermaids, swan girls, the Green Man of No One’s Land, Siani Chickens who lived on the beach, old Beti’s love potions, Skomer Oddy the giant, Shemi the Fibber of Fishguard, the war on the little mountain, and Henry Box Brown who escaped slavery and brought crankies to the UK. Join Peter on a journey that blends past and present and explores the social and environmental change that is carved into the Welsh coastline. Stories will be chosen from his two new books, Welsh Folk Tales of Coast and Sea, and Illustrated Welsh Folk Tales for Young and Old.

Tickets £5 Accompanied children FREE, but must be booked in advance as numbers are limited

1pm – 2pm Lunch in the Café

2.15 pm Karen Bartlett: The Escape from Kabul – a True Story of Sisterhood and Defiance

This is a remarkable, never-before-told account of how a global network of female judges created a support group, working round-the-clock to help many Afghan women judges and their families escape. The heart-stopping stories of their journeys and the shocking fates of those unable to get out are documented by the best-selling veteran journalist, Karen Bartlett. 

Tickets £5

3.30 pm Jo Jukes: Finding Home – Journeys with the Hillforts of Shropshire

Jo Jukes is an artist, poet, songwriter and author focusing on connection to landscape. Jo’s visual eye translates into her evocative nature writing making the land come alive in a sensory way to build a relationship for the reader to experience. With two books ‘Finding Home – Journeys with the Hillforts of Shropshire’ and ‘Finding Beauty – A Year of Nature Outside Your Door’ to her name, she also writes regular nature articles for her local Herald that are recorded for the East Shropshire Talking Newspaper.

Her first book ‘Finding Home’ is an evocative and personal exploration of landscape, ancestry and our connection to the natural world. Jo says it started off as a guide to Iron Age hillforts of Shropshire and ended up as a pilgrimage of the soul. The land literally speaks to her through stories, songs and poetry and is accompanied by many beautiful black and white photos.

Tickets £5

Sunday 12th October

11.30am Manda Scott: Any Human Power

Dream deeply. Rise up strong. Change is coming.

How do you help the people you love create a future you’re proud to leave behind? 

From bestselling author Manda Scott comes a visionary thriller of a lifetime. Weaving together myth, technology and radical compassion, this novel breaks apart all we know of life, death and the routes to hope, asking us all to dream deeply and act boldly.

‘Instantly immersive and compelling, rich and strange, human and humane, and most of all inspiring … an extraordinary story. ’ Lee Child

Tickets £5 

1 – 2pm  Lunch will be available in the Cafe 

2.30pm Felicity Spector: Bread and War A Ukrainian Story of Food, Bravery and Hope

Sponsored by the Knighton Refugee Group

Food is a weapon, a lifeline, a means of survival. Ukrainian food is also a powerful symbol of national identity and independence. Inspirational and insightful, Bread and War is a compelling account of feeding, eating and resistance in wartime Ukraine. Bread and War tells the extraordinary stories of just some of those people determined to reclaim Ukrainian food memories after decades of Soviet suppression, driven to keep Ukraine independent in politics and culture.

Tickets £5

5pm Willow Globe Theatre Company presents A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Shakespeare’s most magical comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a tale of love, mischief, and mayhem, where fairies meddle, lovers get lost, and a band of hapless actors stumble into enchantment. This playful and enchanting production promises an evening of laughter, wonder, and a touch of midsummer magic to brighten a cool October night.  Don’t miss it!

Tickets: Adults £14, U16s £7, 

Family (2 adults, 2 U16s) £35

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