Shoreham Wordfest programme director Rosalind Turner is delighted with the programme that has come together for this year’s festival.
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00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers.
00:05Really lovely this morning to speak to Rosalind Turner. Rosalind, you are the Programme Director
00:10for Shoreham Wordfest, which runs from September the 29th to October the 20th.
00:15You've got a fabulous programme, haven't you? And you were just telling me how it started
00:19relatively small, but with lots of enthusiasm, and the Wordfest has grown to become something
00:24really significant. You must be very proud of that development, having been in there
00:28right at the start. Yes, I was right at the start. And yes, I would never have believed
00:34all that time ago, 13 years ago, when we were just satisfying what was going on locally,
00:40you know, working with local writers, listening to local poets, and helping new people to get
00:46into writing and sharing their work with other people. And it's grown year on year.
00:52It's a tremendous enthusiasm. We've got an audience, a regular audience drawn from the
00:57local area. But increasingly, things that we're putting on are attracting people from
01:01right across the region and beyond. So our Crime Writing Festival, for example,
01:06and this is the third year of Fatal Shore. And it's run by Ellie Griffiths and William Shaw.
01:13They just bring all their friends, all their crime author friends come along.
01:18And consequently, we've got an audience, even from Scotland, coming down for that.
01:23So yes, it's somehow it's piqued everybody's interest. And as I say, we've got a loyal group
01:28of local people who get involved with it and our audience. But it's nice.
01:34Has it reached its maximum size, do you think? Or is the Wordfest still getting bigger?
01:39I feel it shouldn't get any bigger as the programme directs.
01:43For sanity's sake. Yes, absolutely. And I think,
01:49you know, for the audience as well, they're very enthusiastic, want to come to everything.
01:54It's quite a lot of money, isn't it? Because we don't receive any public funding.
01:58So no, no public funding. Occasionally, we've had a grant from the local councils, but,
02:03you know, it's not easy now. And the Arts Council, we receive funding for specific projects.
02:09But for just running the festival is ticket income. So I'm quite proud of that, actually,
02:15because so far, and I'll touch some wood, every year we've covered the costs of all of our events
02:21with a little bit more to go in the pot for next year.
02:24That's a huge achievement, isn't it?
02:25It is. It is. You know, it's a great model. We've been very successful at doing it.
02:30Don't know if we can hold it this year. We'll see. But it does mean it puts a strain,
02:36we keep the ticket prices as low as possible, because we want it to be there for everybody.
02:42But so for our audience, if they want to come to 27 events,
02:46and the lowest price this year is £10, that's a lot of money.
02:50And obviously, they won't come to every event. But yes, so we try and keep it affordable,
02:55give people offers and hope that we can still get people coming in.
02:59Fantastic. Well, Rosalind, it's a beautiful programme, fabulous programme you've got
03:03lined up for this year from September the 29th to October the 20th. Really lovely to speak to you
03:09and good luck with all that's ahead. Thank you.
03:12Thank you very much.