Shrewsbury Bookfest fun for youngsters - with pictures
Hundreds of children were inspired to read this weekend at the 21st Shrewsbury Bookfest.
From reading sessions to model-making workshops, there was something for all young bookworms to enjoy at this year’s May Festival.
There was a whole host of free activities in The Square on Saturday afternoon, including book-making workshops, a stand-up stage, craft making and letter hunt.
Ali McGowan, Bookfest school co-ordinator, said: “The aim of the festival is to try and get children hooked on books for life and all of the events are designed to spark their imaginations.
“We’ve had an illustrator making books with the children, they’ve also been making jars of dreams, puppets and dinosaurs, and we had dancers and a stage where the children could perform whatever they wanted.
“It’s been much busier than we thought which is great – I think the weather helped with that. I’ve been working in primary schools recently so it was nice to see a lot of the children turn up with their families, but we’ve also had people from all over the county come.”
This year also saw the introduction of Bookfest Quest which highlighted the theme of inspiring young minds to enjoy words and books. It encouraged children of all ages to have fun exploring central Shrewsbury by hunting 16 large and colourful letters decorated by local schools.
When all of the letters were collected it spelled out ‘books build brains’ and all the children who completed the quest got a goody bag at the end. Del Williams completed the quest with her daughter Freya, eight, and said it was a great idea to get children involved with reading.
“We really enjoyed going round town and seeing places like the castle, and it was the perfect weather for it,” she said.
“She loves reading already, especially Matilda and James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, so we love Bookfest. It’s a lovely idea and you can see their imaginations working.”
A highlight of this year’s festival was Roald Dahl and the Imagination Seekers - a theatrical experience for seven to 10 years olds, inspired by the famous author.
Founder Caroline Thewles said: “We started Bookfest in 1998 after a group of us sat down and said lets do a festival for children. We did one and the phone just started ringing with people saying how much they enjoyed it so we carried on.
“I think it’s so popular because we try really hard to be friendly and make things easy for people. And of course we have a huge variety of events on.
“We do it because we love seeing the children reading and being hands on, then going away and wanting to read for the rest of their lives.”
On Sunday there was an Early Man model-making workshop with Aardman, a creative writing master class with Christopher Edge and Elmer the Elephant storytelling with Liz Fost. The festival rounds off todayon Bank Holiday Monday with Dinosaurs Galore with Sir Charlie Stinky Socks by Kristina Stephenson and Join the World of Olobob Top.
Ali added: “Shrewsbury Bookfest is a charity completely run by volunteers who love what they do.
“It takes a lot of hard work but it’s worth it. When one ends we start thinking ahead to next year - it literally takes all year to organise.
“This year we wanted it to be more hands on so organised more workshops with animators, illustrators and authors and they’ve been really popular. It’s all just about showcasing that Bookfest has to offer.”
