Festival Of Libraries in various venues
Creative Tourist
Festival Of Libraries is a five-day multi-venue celebration of Greater Manchester’s libraries, returning from 12 to 16 June.
Taking place in and organised by the UNESCO Manchester City Of Literature, the Festival Of Libraries is “a joyful celebration of the role that Greater Manchester’s 133 libraries play in wellbeing, culture, creativity and more”.
The festival opens on Wednesday 12 June with a performance by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and his band LYR (Land Yacht Regatta), who’ll be unveiling a new song, ‘The Enlightenment’, commissioned by Festival of Libraries and paying tribute to the transformational powers that lie within the walls of libraries.
More celebrations come with the Inspired By Libraries series that follows, with a host of ‘in conversation’ events featuring the likes of Children’s Laureate Joseph Coehlo at Urmston Library (Thursday 13 June), actor Christopher Eccleston at Stockport Central Library (Thursday 13 June) actor Maxine Peake (Wednesday 12 June) at the newly renovated Bolton Central Library and musician and spoken word artist Antony Szmierek at Manchester Poetry Library (Thursday 13 June).
Manchester Central Library gets its own celebration, 10 years following the major regeneration project to revamp its appearance and services to millions of library-goers. An intriguing highlight here is the Edible Readathon (16 June), which explores the role of food in children’s literature, from Snow White’s apple to the potion that sent Alice on her trip to Wonderland. Stockport Central Library, Rochdale Library and Langley Library, meanwhile, will be visited by Queenie and the Pooka, a theatre show full of live music and dance for families to enjoy.
If you want to get more hands-on, there are lots of writing workshops happening, including at Old Trafford Library (Wednesday 12 June), Ashton Library (Thursday 13 June), Height Library (Thursday 13 June), Rochdale Library (Thursday 13 June), Heywood Library (Friday 14 June) and Ramsbottom Library (Saturday 15 June). And the workshops aren’t limited to writing – there’s a design workshop being held by artist Oliver East at Manchester Central Library on Wednesday 13 June. And at The Portico Library, words and art are being combined in Blackout the Jargon on Thursday 14 June, in a session that applies the technique of redacting to academic journals to create a literary and visual work of art.
With so much programmed, the 2024 instalment of Festival of Libraries looks set to be its best yet. To find out more about what’s on, head to the Festival of Libraries website via the button below. And for our own guide to Libraries in Manchester, head here.
