And we’re off again – for the fourth IRON Press Festival.
What was planned in 2013 as a one-off celebration to mark forty years of IRON Press, the festival went on to win Best Event Tyneside in The Journal Culture Awards and has now become a regular feature around the harbour of the distinctive seaside village of Cullercoats.
As far as we’re aware, it’s the country’s only literary festival built around a small press. As founder Peter Mortimer puts it: “We’re small and that’s how we intend to stay. “
Rather than buying tickets for well-known telly faces, you’re on a journey of discovery. So this year, you can witness the gently intelligent humour of poet John Robert Brown’s new book, ‘Odd Socks’, or Jack and Bill & The Fogrunt Amulet, the controversially irreverent poetry of The Brothers Grime. Try ‘The Bairn’, Elaine Whitesides’ beautifully-written evocation of a 1950s Cullercoats upbringing (reprinted for the festival) or a breakfast lecture by Doctor Joyce Leeson, the widow of South African activist Zola Zembe that brings the apartheid struggles of South Africa to The Boat Yard.
Try the combustible Tyneside poetic legend, Tom Pickard, or ‘Zephaniah Haddock & The Stolen Star’ – a brand new commissioned play, written by Peter Mortimer and performed by pupils of Cullercoats Primary School. On the same bill is the intoxicating music of the famous North Tyneside Steelband.
IRON Press Festival takes place between Thursday 20th and Sunday 23rd June. For further information, please head to ironpress.co.uk.
