A WEEK-LONG festival that has been a staple of the school calendar for several years still went ahead after adapting to coronavirus safety guidelines.

The 13th year of the Swindon Youth Festival of Literature could have been unlucky, but the organising committee made up of librarians from 13 secondary schools around the town worked hard to ensure that the usual array of authors and activities could be arranged.

The festival celebrates reading, writing and creativity as students work with authors, poets and illustrators. Each school hosted video workshops and interactive talks from their chosen authors throughout the week.

This year featured Steve Cole, Anthony McGowan, Alexander Gordon Smith, Karen Gregory, Jenny McLachlan, Dave Cousins, Julian Sayarer, Helen Dennis, Ele Fountain, and Phil Earle.

The usual headline talk at the Wyvern Theatre had to be scrapped so instead, award-winning author Sally Gardner spoke to students directly online about how she became an author while dealing with dyslexia.

Poet Ash Dickinson made his annual visit to every Year 7 group to perform some of his finest verses and encourage the pupils’ inner poet as they created their own rhymes and haikus.

The competitions continued, too. The creative writing competition was judged by Alexander Gordon Smith, the illustration competition by Steve Anthony and the poetry one by Ash Dickinson.

Kate Murphy, of Dorcan Academy, led the team effort to organise it all. She said: “Our festival looked a bit different this year but we still had an amazing line-up.

“The only events we couldn’t run were the art workshop with Steve Anthony and the book quiz, but we were determined not to cancel it.

“We looked at models of festivals like the Hay Festival and decided it was definitely possible to put it on. The festival being virtual did provide other opportunities - mainly that we could reach many more students than usual.

“The Swindon Association of Secondary Heads supported us as always by funding the festival and we really do feel that we still achieved the gold standard we have come to expect

“None of it would have been possible without the continued enthusiasm of our participating authors. They were so supportive of us getting a virtual festival off the ground and that made all the difference.

“We know how much they missed visiting Swindon so we sent them a special festival mug to connect with them. Hopefully they can drink their tea from it while dreaming of a Covid-free festival next year.”

Pupils from the festival’s partner primary schools were invited to join in by participating in virtual events.