Show your creativity at new writing festival
Summer event could be held annually if successful
Paisley youngsters who are keen on writing are being invited to get involved with an exciting new festival.
Arts organisation Create Paisley is putting in ‘ Write Here Write Now’ in a bid to promote young writers in the town and encourage them to carry on with the craft.
The festival will take place in July at Paisley Town Hall and is part of the Year of Young People 2018, and is being done in collaboration with the town’s PACE theatre company.
Create Paisley’s Sarah van Rensburg, 19, said: “The idea is we are putting together a festival where young people are involved in the process of everything.
“It is for 12 to 21- year- olds interested in learning about event management and who are interested in writing.
“They can get involved in planning the festival and give their vision about what it should look like.
“It’s really cool but basically the idea is a festival to showcase young writers and to inspire young people in their writing.
“The main premise is that we are going to have young people submit writing that they’ve done and there’s a website called write18.com and they can go on there and they can submit either poetry, monologues, or songs that they’ve written themselves.
“And then we are going to select young people and they are going to go into development days.
“They’ll be able to be mentored and develop their work. Then, on July 27, we are going to have a big showcase where they can perform what they’ve written.”
The festival will feature a full play, songs and poetry, Sarah added.
“It’s a very cool opportunity for them to develop their skills and grow,” she said.
“On the day before the performance we are going to have different stalls set up.
“And there’s also going to be writing workshops. It’s to get young people and children and families interested in writing and promote reading.”
Create Paisley is currently working to publicise ‘Write Here Write Now’, and young people have already been in touch in a bid to take part.
“There are a lot of young writers in Paisley who are wanting to develop their work.”
And there are the hopes the festival might carry on after 2018.
“I think it would be cool if it became an annual thing,” said Sarah. “But at the minute we are thinking about the performance in July.”
Go to www.write18.com to get involved.
There are a lot of young writers in Paisley who are wanting to develop their work