Hay Festival officially opened its doors yesterday and will be running until the 4th June. We LOVE a book festival at Warwickshire Libraries and it gave us some food for thought – what is it that makes book festivals so great?

Seeing Your Favourite Authors

Book festivals are a great place to meet authors in person. Some of the biggest names in literature can be found at festivals (for example, take a look at the Margaret Atwood event we shall be livestreaming from Hay Festival!). They are often promoting their latest book, but also give a wide variety of interesting talks about diverse topics. It’s also an opportunity to discover newer and less well-known authors. You may just meet the next bestseller before they get famous! Don’t forget to get your books signed…

Discovering New Books

Being with others who love books means they make recommendations to you, you may also stumble across an author you have never read before at a talk, or pick up a copy of a book that’s being promoted. However you discover them, most people come away with an even longer TBR pile than before!

The Atmosphere

Book festivals tend to have a cheerful energy because most people are there to have fun and relax. There is a buzz of excitement as guests anticipate seeing events they are looking forward to. If you ever do go to one, make sure to take a moment to soak up that inspiring atmosphere!

Bringing People Together

Reading is generally a solitary activity, but book festivals give us the chance to get together with others who share the same passion. Meeting up with like-minded individuals creates opportunities to forge new friendships and talk about things that you love. There’s nothing quite like chatting about books with people in real life, instead of online!

Here at Warwickshire Libraries we are really excited to be working in conjunction with the British Library’s Living Knowledge Network to bring livestreams from the Hay Festival, so you don’t have to travel all the way to Hay-on-Wye to see them. There is a real mixture of events that we will be livestreaming, for children and adults. They are all FREE to attend, and you can take a look at what is happening where and book your place here.

Take a look at our exciting children’s livestreams:

We also have some fantastic adult events, too: