HAVE you been getting creative in lockdown?

Ilkley Literature Festival is encouraging local writers, performers and community groups to apply to take part in the 2020 Festival Fringe.

The festival team remain hopeful that the weekend-long Fringe Festival will be able to take place as planned Saturday 3 to Sunday 4 October at venues in Ilkley’s Heritage Quarter, the area around the Manor House and All Saints’ Church.

If public health guidance means this is not possible, then the Fringe will still take place in some form, either online or on new dates.

The Fringe is a smorgasbord of local creative talent, providing a rich blend of delights and surprises for audiences to sample. Mixing scheduled events with improvised pop-ups, drop-ins and promenades, Fringe producing partners Playful Being aim to showcase a diverse range of voices and genres.

Applications should feature new ideas and innovative ways of entertaining an audience – whether it’s on a stage, outside in a courtyard, in a workshop setting, or from your living room.

Events can include performances, interactive workshops, promenades, flashmobs, 15-minute pop ups, improvised interventions or anything else that fits with the vision of the weekend. The maximum time slot is 45 minutes, and shorter performances or pop-ups could be repeated.

Playful Being’s Jess Penrose and Mel Taylor said: “We want to encourage people who might not have considered applying for the Fringe before to have a go this year. If you haven’t previously had time due to pressures of work or never thought you were a creative person until lockdown made you pass your time in new ways, we want to hear from you! “We’re looking for inventive ideas, interactive elements and performances that celebrate the power of words in bringing people together – even while we’re physically apart.”

Applicants will be individuals or groups from, or with strong connections to, the Yorkshire region. The selection of applicants aims to showcase a range of art forms and events to reflect the diversity of the region.

For more information, visit the website: http://www.ilkleyliteraturefestival.org.uk/whats-on/fringe-festival.

To apply online, use our online application form: https://www.cognitoforms.com/IlkleyLiteratureFestival/_2020ilkleyliteraturefestivalfringeapplicationform.

Submissions close 15 May 2020.

Ilkley Literature Festival is the longest-standing literature festival in the North. The Festival is held over 17 days at the start of October and attracts an audience of 24,000 people.

Each year, over 180 events take place in a variety of venues across the town and beyond.

Activities are no longer confined to October, with projects and outreach events taking place across the year, such as schools visits, children’s and young people’s creative writing groups and initiatives to widen access and inclusivity.

The Festival aims to bring literature and poetry of national significance to the widest possible audience and to showcase new work by emerging and mid-career writers.

The Festival is supported by Arts Council England and Bradford Metropolitan Council and is proud to work with the University of Leeds Cultural Institute as its Higher Education Partner.

Ilkley Literature Festival is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.

www.ilkleyliteraturefestival.org.uk

@ilkleylitfest

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