Julia Wakelam, chair of Bury St Edmunds Literature Festival, looks back on author events at Bury St Edmunds Library and the Unitarian Meeting House
The chair of a town’s literature festival has spoken of ‘inspirational’ author talks and ‘brilliant’ children’s events after it came to a close on Sunday.
Over the weekend, children and adults had been encouraged to embrace the joy of reading at venues across Bury St Edmunds town centre.
Julia Wakelam, chair of Bury St Edmunds Literature Festival, said: “Our volunteers were just wonderful, we couldn’t do this without them.”
Since she was on the committee that set up the festival in 2017, Julia said it had been ‘amazing and like a dream come true’ to see it grow over the years.
On Saturday morning, she enjoyed watching an interactive session for children at Bury Library led by storyteller Liz Fost.
“It was brilliant. I was so moved seeing their little faces,” said Julia.
“I want all children to have that joy of reading.”
Julia and programme curator Kate Sawyer, an author, are already looking ahead to next year working towards a greener more sustainable festival.
This year's lineup included a popular author event, Gardening for Climate Change, which took place at the Unitarian Meeting House on Sunday, which Julia said was inspirational.
Kate and Julia also hope to continue running creative writing workshops in schools across Bury as part of the festival.
This year, the school workshops have been attended by more than 1,000 children and young people.
You can read about the festival's creative writing competition, supported by the Bury Free Press, here.
You can see more photos from the festival below.
