Thursday, August 8, 2013

Welcome to Crieff High Street Arts Festival!


As I mentioned in my last post, I am going to be taking part in the upcoming and first ever Crieff High Street Arts Festival, taking place on 24th and 25th August. The Festival is the brainchild of local artist June McEwan and it is largely thanks to her energy and enthusiasm that it is taking place (June is an energy bomb - as I remarked once, we should forget fracking and just connect June to the power grid).

The Festival is going to help put Crieff on the artistic map - but if you don't know where it is on the ordinary map, it's a town in Perthshire, Scotland, set in gorgeous countryside and home to such interesting things as the Famous Grouse distillery and Crieff Hydro. Well worth a visit if you're within travelling distance, and the Festival could be the very excuse you need to make the trip!

All sorts of events and exhibitions will be taking place over the weekend of the Festival, including an acoustic music workshop, taster sessions in spinning, ceramics and felting, an exhibition by the Strathearn Arts Society and a mandolin and guitar concert. More details about the Festival are available here: Crieff High Street Arts Festival

Of course, locally-based writers (of which Crieff has a surprising number) are getting involved too. On Saturday 24th August I am appearing alongside Susy McPhee (author of The Runaway Wife and Husbands and Lies) at the Drill Hall on Meadow Place, for "An audience with Helen Grant and Susy McPhee."


Above: Susy McPhee

The event starts at 7.15pm and entrance is free! This is largely due to the generosity of local businesses who are sponsoring the event. The venue itself (below) is being offered by Vivace Lichtman. Wine for the evening is being sponsored by Harrison's Fine Wines and nibbles by McNee's of Crieff. A very big THANK YOU to these brilliant sponsors! 


The evening will involve not only the "audience" itself - a chance to hear me and Susy talk about our inspirations and, as Susy puts it, "what it's like living for so much of the time in a world we've created inside our own heads" - but also an opportunity to ask questions and buy signed copies of our books. It will be fun and glam and we'd love to see you there if you are within travelling distance! 


 


If you are attending, please confirm this on Facebook, here: https://www.facebook.com/events/284636921673995/ It is a big help with planning for the evening if we know roughly how many people are coming! 

 

Above: sponsors McNee's of Crieff and Harrison's Fine Wines!


3 comments:

  1. I'm very much looking forward to getting a flavour of what you and Suzy do. It all sounds like a super evening ......with wine too!

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  2. I'm looking forward to it too! :-)

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  3. NB For anyone who might be thinking this event is really just for the ladies, Susy's book HUSBANDS AND LIES got this great amazon review from a man!

    "Picked this up from my girlfriend's bedside table when I was ill with the lurgy and had finished the Richard Hammond she got me for Christmas. NOT my cup of tea, I thought, but then I started reading it (like I say I was ILL) and got hooked. Well done Ms. McPhee for writing something a bloke could enjoy. Pity the cover screams girlie. If I'd been on the train I would've had to hide it inside my Beano." :-)

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