Thoughts on Fowey Festival 2024
The Fowey Festival of Arts and Literature ended yesterday after what had been a great week.
The sun shone in Fowey, most of the time, there was a relaxed and happy atmosphere in the town and among festival goers and a definite feeling that everyone who had attended events at the festival had enjoyed themselves very much.
The programme of events was really excellent this year with a wide range of talks, reading groups, workshops, music and comedy, and a good core of Daphne du Maurier-related events to satisfy those festival goers, who mainly attend the festival because of their love of or interest in Daphne.
The hub of the festival was, as usual, the Royal Fowey Yacht Club, where people could buy teas, coffees, snacks and meals and where they could sit on the terrace in the sunshine enjoying the view of the river and out to sea. In the yacht club people could also buy tickets for the many Fowey Festival events taking place and use the information point to help them with any questions. They could also find all the books relating to the festival and lots of other current or local interest books in the Waterstones Festival Bookshop.
Other events taking place during the week were the Daphne du Maurier-related walks, the Art Trail and the Secret Gardens, which took people out and about in Fowey and across to Polruan and Bodinnick.
During the festival, we held a book sale in honour of Collin Langley, a major supporter of the festival in Fowey for many years and an expert on Daphne du Maurier. Sadly, Collin died last summer, but his family generously donated his du Maurier-related book collection to Fowey Festival to raise funds for the festival. The book sale was a huge success and raised an astonishing £920.00 for the festival. It was an absolute pleasure to sell Collin’s book, and very touching that many people who had known him over the years wanted to buy his books as a memory of him.
So, let’s do it all again next year.
The dates for next year’s Fowey Festival of Arts and Literature will be 9th – 17th May 2025.