Dear friends and supporters
All of us on the Islay Book Festival committee are very sorry to announce that we won’t be holding a physical festival this year.
We had been hoping that the situation might have improved enough by the end of August to allow us to hold this year’s event as planned, but due to the current lockdown we have found it increasingly difficult to progress with our planning in the meantime and, more importantly, we do not want to be the cause of any additional risk to the health of our volunteers or the island communities in which we operate over the next few months.
We appreciate that the creative sector, as well as its individual practitioners, is being hard hit by the ongoing public health crisis, and so we are sorry to have to come to this decision. However, we have been monitoring the situation closely over the last few weeks and are now in no doubt that this is the right thing to do for the safety and well-being of all concerned.
Although we are disappointed that we won’t be able to bring you this year’s fantastic line-up, we hope to welcome some of our 2020 contributors in person next year instead.
Meanwhile, there is some exciting news for 2020! We will be running a digital festival through our website on 27-30 August, featuring contributions from most of our line-up including book introductions and taster sessions, live online performances and author Q&As, workshops and storytelling. More details will be available soon on our website and social media channels, so please keep an eye out, and don’t forget to join us virtually on our festival dates!
With all good wishes from
Angus, Anne, Charlène, Isla, Isobel, Jenny, Jo and Tony