On Thursday, April 20th, Fantasy Faire will open for 2017, and will run through until the end of the month. As always, there will be many things to see and do – and deep within the Fairelands lies a special place where the magic of the spoken word will weave tales of wonder, relate stories of great adventure and daring; where talks by authors, discussions, creative writing sessions and performances will all take place.
Celebrating its third year, the Fantasy Faire Literary Fest – LitFest for short – is now an established staple of the Fairelands. It will bring together a number of storytelling and creative writing groups together, who will share their programmes of events. There will also be special sessions in which Fairelanders far and wide will be encouraged to participate, such as the Writing Challenges, wherein those who enjoy writing can put their Fantasy Faire experiences into words; there will be Open Mic sessions led by well-known poets and writers, and sessions which open with reading but which invite the audience to contribute too.
And of course, there will be the LitFest tours. These will take three times a day – 12:00 noon, 17:00 and 20:00 SLT – and depart from the LitFest base in Kakushi Pasu to tour a different region of the Faire each day, seeking out hidden secrets and seeking to inspire those on the tour to write about what they see and discover.
The Tours for 2017 will be as follows:
| Thursday, April 20th |
Region 1 – Mudrana |
| Friday, April 21st |
Region 2 – Raven’s Perch |
| Saturday, April 22nd |
Region 3 – Dawn’s Priomise |
| Sunday, April 23rd |
Region 4 – Egregore |
| Monday, April 24th |
Region 5 – Fallen Sands |
| Tuesday, April 25th |
Region 6 – San Mora |
| Wednesday, April 26th |
Region 7 – The Hill |
| Thursday, April 27th |
Region 8 – Chaddul Ro |
| Friday, April 28th |
Region 9 – The Spirit Pool |
| Saturday, April 29th |
Region 10 – The Rose |
After each tour, there will be the opportunity to return the Literary Festival base to lay down the words inspired by the tour (or you can do this wherever you like), and later share you work – if you desire – directly via open microphone or via in-world note card or e-mail submission. Note that all sharing is voluntary, and you retain the creative ownership of your work.
Special Guest
A special guest will be in attendance at the LitFest this year – Seanan McGuire, author of – among other things – the October Daye, Incryptid and Wayward Children series. She will be taking part in two events:
| Monday, April 24th, 13:00 SLT |
An interview with Seanan McGuire |
| Friday, April 28th, 13:00 SLT |
Seansan McGuire reads from her own work |
Vedui’ Lindari, Mae Govannen!
Each LitFest features the works of a particular author. In 2015, it was Terry Pratchett, who sadly passed away just before the event. In 2016, and to mark the 400th anniversary of his death, the LitFest featured William Shakespeare.
This year, on Tuesday, April 25th, LitFest will honour the life and works of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, the true Master of Middle Earth and keeper of tales of the Eldar Days.
More details on this will be announced soon – but as I have heard through Faireland grapevine that Hobbits are involved, you can be sure it will involve a party – Unexpected or otherwise!
As Merry As The Day Is Long
The Faireland Players will also be returning this year, this time presenting Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. The play will be staged on Sunday, April 23rd, from 13.30 to 15:00 SLT, and on Sunday, April 30th, from 10:00 to 11:30 SLT. You can read more about the play and the Faireland Players on the Fantasy Faire LitFest pages.
Find Out More
While I and many other bloggers will be covering Fantasy Faire, the best place to keep abreast of all the new is the Fantasy Faire blog and the full LitFest schedule – just select the AGENDA view for ease-of-reading!
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 