First names revealed as festival prepares to launch
Organisers of the popular BOOKMARK festival in Blairgowrie have announced the first two guests who will be appearing at the October event.
Author Billy Kay will open the festival on Saturday, October 9, with an illustrated talk about his book ‘The Scottish World’.
And Andrew Crummy will also be at the festival to talk about designing the Scottish Diaspora Tapestry– and how much of his research was based on Billy’s book.
The BOOKMARK committee has also confirmed that the launch event for ticket sales for this year’s festival has been postponed.
The launch had been scheduled to take place this Saturday but last week the Blairgowrie, Rattray and the Glens book festival announced that it will now take place on Saturday, August 21, as restrictions imposed as part of efforts to tackle the coronavirus pandemic continue to affect event organisers.
BOOKMARK committee chair, Gail Wylie, said: “Bearing in mind that any decision about the venue for our October festival cannot be taken until at least August 9, we are delaying our ticket launch, and discussion with Richard
Frazer and Olga Wojtas.
“Both of our guests really wanted an in-person session to pick up the Camino trail again following on from our online event earlier in the year, and we are a little more confident that we can join them in person in late August!
“I’ll also be talking about who is coming in October for our eight events on the theme of ‘going abroad and coming home.’
“And there will be the opportunity to buy your early bird pass, which offers great savings for all eight events.”
The main BOOKMARK festival is due to take place over the weekend of October 9 and 10, and due to Covid-related restrictions, will be a scaled back event compared with previous years.
Gail said: “We are looking ahead with some optimism to our October weekend despite the fact that this year our festival will look rather different.
“It will run only for the Saturday and Sunday and there will be limited catering options.
“We can’t confirm the venue at the moment but sincerely hope – Covid rules permitting – that we will be at Blairgowrie Community Campus with all hygiene measure in force, including social distancing.”
Announcing the festival’s two opening events, Gail said: “We are very excited to
welcome Andrew Crummy to talk about designing The Scottish Diaspora Tapestry.
“He has also been involved with 18 other ground-breaking tapestries, including The Prestonpans Tapestry, which was displayed in St John’s Kirk, Perth, a few years ago and The Great Tapestry of Scotland soon to be on permanent display in Galashiels.
“At the moment you can visit Verdant Works in Dundee to see The Scottish
Diaspora Tapestry, which is so large it is being shown in two parts.
“The first part, showing until July 20, focuses on Europe, the Baltic and America, and is followed on by the second part from July 22 to September 12 which highlights South Asia, Australia, Africa and the UK.
“Andrew based much of his research on Billy Kay’s book ‘The Scottish World’, which is about the influence of Scots who travelled abroad from the 16th century onwards.
“Billy will open our festival on Saturday, October 9, with an illustrated talk about his book.”
Judging for the Book of the Year Award 2021 continues and the BOOKMARK committee has donated a copy of each of the short-listed titles to Blairgowrie Library and Blairgowrie High School, with the winner to be announced in October.