THE Swindon Spring Festival cancelled its programme launch but the event itself is still going ahead - with a few changes.

Literature lovers were due to gather, a safe distance from each other, at Lower Shaw Farm at midday tomorrow to hear about plans for this year's festival.

Instead, programmes will be posted to people - email swindonspringfest@lowershawfarm for a copy.

Some events may not take place, but it is likely that spme authors will appear at the festival as scheduled via online talks and Q&As instead of in-person.

Organiser Matt Holland said: "The likelihood that most of the scheduled live festival events in May will now not take place is a real one.

"However, there are other ways of enjoying what authors have written and may like to say. Festival followers can buy or borrow books described in the programme and read them, especially if finding themselves in enforced isolation. What better companion, to lift the spirits, than a good read?"

"One book that the festival would especially like to recommend is A Saint in Swindon by Alice Jolly. It’s due to be published by Fairlight Books on April 10 and is brilliant, topical, wise, entertaining, serious, funny, set in Swindon, and, in many ways, the perfect read in these tricky and troubling times.

"It is likely that during May, at their allotted times and dates as advertised in the programme, a number of kind authors will present online talks and Q&As, for us, just as they might have done live at the festival."

For more information, email swindonspringfest@lowershawfarm.co.uk or call 01793 771080.