Dates for your diary

Fowey Festival is here at last and what a great festival it is going to be. 

Each day we will be bringing you news items about the upcoming events taking place at the festival. 

Click here to read the latest news item and keep up to date with what is happening.

There are still some tickets available for most of the events.  To book tickets, click here or buy them from the box office in the Royal Fowey Yacht Club, Fowey.

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Fowey Festival - 6th - 14th May 2022

We are delighted to be able to tell you that the programme for the Fowey Festival of Arts and Literature 2022 is now live on the Fowey Festival website: https://www.foweyfestival.com

The festival takes place from 6th – 14th May 2022.  Friends of Fowey Festival can buy tickets now.  Everyone else will be able to buy their tickets from Monday 21st March.

It is a wonderful programme, with a wide range of events, so there will be something to interest everyone, from talks by favourites including Justine Picardie and Patrick Gale, to music from Fisherman’s Friends, Davey Hal and many others.  Of course, there will be guided walks, the Art Trail, and The Secret Gardens to look forward to as well.

The Fowey Festival board of trustees and the Daphne du Maurier website look forward to seeing all you festival-goers in Fowey soon.

Tuesday 3rd May 2022 The Safe Harbour in Fowey is holding a fundraising quiz for the Fowey Festival of Arts and Literature on Tuesday 3rd May at 8pm.  Entry is £2.00 pr person.  Raffle tickets will be on sale, and there are lots of great prizes to win.  If you live in the Fowey area or are here on holiday, do come along and join us this Tuesday – 3rd May.  The Safe Harbour holds a quiz every Tuesday and welcomes newcomers to what is always a fun evening.  Fowey Festival takes place in locations around Fowey 6th – 14th May 2022.

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Fowey Festival Photographic Competition for the Wall Calendar 2023, with the theme of Literary Landscapes, has been extended.  
The closing date for all submissions is now 5pm, on Monday 18th April 2022.

The first prize winner will be announced before the end of the Fowey Festival 2022.

For all the information you need, so that you can send in your entries,

please click here:

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Awards for Young Writers and Artists Competition 2022: Opening date 10th January 2022, Closing date – 17th March, winners to be announced in time for an Awards Presentation Event on 14th May 2022 (tbc).

Fowey Festival Adult Short Story Competition 2022: Opening date – 6th December 2021, Closing date - 6th March 2022, winners to be announced in time for an awards ceremony at the 2022 Festival.

 

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Fowey Festival Photographic Competition – Wall Calendar 2023 update

A reminder for everyone who wants to participate in the Fowey Festival Photographic Competition. 

The closing date is Monday 28th March, so you have just three weeks to send in your entries.

The winning photographs will appear in the Fowey Festival wall calendar for 2023. 

Entry forms, the entry fee payment link, and the competition rules can all be found here: https://www.foweyfestival.com/competitions-and-awards/2023-wall-calendar-photographic-competition-opens-for-entries-february-21st-2022/

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Fowey Festival Photographic Competition – Wall Calendar 2023

Fowey Festival is delighted to announce their first-ever Photographic Competition, with the winning photographs appearing in their 2023 calendar. 

The theme of the competition is Literary Landscapes. 

The festival team are delighted to announce that the judging panel will be chaired by Daphne du Maurier’s son, Christian Browning.  He will be joined by wildlife and BBC photographer Ian McCarthy and Festival Director, Brenda Daly.  They will be looking for the twelve photographs which best depict a scene relating to an author or their work.  The overall winning photograph will feature on the front cover, while all twelve winning entries will make up the contents of the calendar.

The photographer of the image chosen for the front cover will receive a prize of £100.  There is also a prize of £25 each for the other eleven photographers.  In addition, all twelve winning entrants will each receive a copy of the 2023 Festival wall calendar.

Entry to the competition is £5 per photograph entered.  Entries may be submitted from 9am on 21st February. The closing date for all submissions is 5pm Monday 28th March 2022. 

For lots more information, please click here: https://www.foweyfestival.com/competitions-and-awards/2023-wall-calendar-photographic-competition-opens-for-entries-february-21st-2022/ 

The entry form will be available at the above link on the competition opening day.

 

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Awards for Young Writers and Artists competition launches today,

Monday 10th January 2022

This year the theme is Our Natural World.  The competition is open to all children living in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly aged 4 to 16 years on the final entry date of Thursday 17th March 2022.

Thanks to generous sponsorship, entry is free.

 

Children can focus on any aspect of our Natural World, from an appreciation of the wild beauty of Cornwall to sustainability, global warming and climate change.  The challenge is to produce an original picture, poem, short story or piece of factual writing, providing a range of opportunities for children of all ages.

For this competition, the Fowey Festival team are working with local writers, including a collaboration with the Eden Project’s brilliant Found World’s project.

Important dates to remember:

Monday 10th January 202 – Launch date
Thursday 17th March 2022 – Final entry date
Tuesday 26th April 2022 – Shortlist published on Fowey Festival website
Saturday 14th May 2022 (tbc) – Awards Presentation Event

For more information, please go to the Fowey Festival website: https://www.foweyfestival.com

 

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Fowey Festival Calendar 2022

The Fowey Festival team has produced the first-ever Festival wall calendar for you to enjoy for yourselves or give to someone as a present this Christmastime.

Huge thanks go to Kits Browning, Daphne du Maurier's son, for providing all the truly wonderful photographs of Fowey and the surrounding area for the calendar.  You will find memorable dates associated with Daphne and her family throughout the calendar.  These have been researched here at the Daphne du Maurier website. 

Calendars are priced at £12.00, including P&P 

To place your order, please go to the Fowey Festival website and follow the link: https://www.foweyfestival.com/shop/sample-product/fowey-literary-festival-wall-calendar-2022-2/

For multiple calendar purchases and orders outside of the UK, don't hesitate to get in touch with info@foweyfestival.com

There are just a few of these beautiful calendars left so order one now if you would still like one.

 

 

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Fowey Festival Adult Short Story Competition 2022 – Opens December 6th 2021 As part of the 2022 festival, Fowey Festival will again be holding a short story competition for adults.  For 2022 the title chosen is ‘Spring Picture’.  This was the title of one of Daphne du Maurier’s less well known short stories, published in 1944.  Hopefully, this year’s carefully chosen title will inspire all budding authors to write with a sense of optimism after the difficult period which forced the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 Festivals (but not the short story competitions). Entries must be no more than 1500 words and must include the title, but its interpretation is entirely up to you! The competition is open to all those over 16 years of age by the opening of the Festival, May 6th 2022.  The entry cost is £10.  There will be a first prize of £200 and a second prize of £100.  The competition will open to entries on December 6th, 2021 and close on March 6th, 2022.  Judging will then take place to enable winners to be announced in time for an award ceremony at the 2022 Festival. For full details, please click here: https://www.foweyfestival.com/competitions-and-awards/short-story-competition-for-adults/

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A literary festival has taken place in Fowey for many years, the first being The Daphne du Maurier Festival of Arts and Literature in May 1997.  This was a community initiative which had the full support of the du Maurier Browning family and was timed to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Daphne’s birth.  From then on it became a tradition that 13th May, Daphne’s birthday, would always be included within the dates of the festival. That first festival provided the pattern for the future, with du Maurier-related walks, exhibitions, talks, plays and music events.  There was a national one-day conference on the subject of Daphne du Maurier and the Romance of Place, with speakers including Avril Horner, Sue Zlosnik and Helen Taylor.  This was repeated on a much bigger scale in 2007, to celebrate Daphne du Maurier’s centenary, when a three-day international conference was held and concluded with a visit to Ferryside for all the delegates. Over the years that followed the Daphne du Maurier Festival of Arts and Literature grew, under the direction of a small team of people from Restormel Borough Council led by Jonathan Aberdeen.  The centrepiece of the festival was a beautiful festival village, built on land belonging to Fowey Community College just beyond Fowey Hall Hotel.

When the festival in Fowey began it was a rare and special event, which thrived through the good years of the 2000s.  But, as the decade drew to a close, a huge range of literary festivals all over the country gave people a greater choice of venue, and politics and the recession began to play their part in what was to become quite a struggle for survival.  With the inception of a unitary authority in the county, Cornwall Council could no longer justify supporting the du Maurier Festival in isolation; funding was reduced and shortly after ceased. However a local group of enthusiastic people got together, incorporated themselves into a charity and the Fowey Festival of Words and Music was born.  The festival became an altogether smaller event, located in various venues around the town, and, despite misgivings from many people, both local and visitors, has proved in the last few years to be very successful and financially sound. The festival is gently growing in strength and content, under the direction of Brenda Daly and its board of trustees, and is enjoyed by all who come.

The formula is still one of walks, exhibitions, talks, workshops, plays and music events but also includes an Art Trail, which gives local artists the opportunity to open their homes and studios to show their work.  Another popular addition in the Secret Gardens Programme, through which local people open their gardens to festival goers.  The festival also always makes a point of focusing on events to include children. 

In 2016 the name of the festival was tweaked slightly, to reflect more accurately what the festival does, and became the Fowey Festival of Arts and Literature.  Despite Daphne du Maurier's name no longer being in the festival title she is still a vital part of the proceedings.

We can now confirm that the dates of the next Fowey Festival of Arts and Literature are 6th - 14th May 2022.  We will being you news of what you can look forward to and link you with the festival website, so that you can be completely up to date with all festival news.

www.foweyfestival.com