Nairn Book and Arts Festival set to show its ‘wild side’ as it launches 2024 programme

A top Highland literary event has unveiled its lineup for 2024, which includes acclaimed writers such as Irvine Welsh and Sally Magnusson.

Tickets for the Nairn Book and Arts Festival’s 21st edition will be on sale from today (June 21) as festival organisers launch the programme, whose theme will be ‘Wild Sides (Wilder Edges)’.

The popular event, which brings book and arts lovers to Nairn every year, will run for nine days from Saturday, August 31 and will bring a mix of talks, live performances, workshops and exhibitions to the town – and will include the awards ceremony for the Highland Book Prize for the first time.

Festival chair Ronald Skeldon commented: “We have a brilliantly diverse programme this year, which we know our audiences are going to love. We have more author events, featuring well-known and respected names such as Irvine Welsh, Jackie Kay and Sally Magnusson, but also exciting young debut authors such as C.E. McGill and Victoria MacKenzie. We’re thrilled to be hosting the Highland Book Prize award ceremony this year for the first time.

“We will be joined by Findlay Napier, one of the country’s greatest traditional musicians, the well-known composer John Lunn, of Shetland and Downton Abbey fame, we are looking forward to the quirky lyricism of the Bookshop Band, and have invited rising and established stars of the Classical and Early Scots music world. Scottish slam poetry champion Hamish MacDonald returns to the festival with street performance and readings from his book, Wilson’s Ornithology & Burds in Scots.

“Our creative workshops include editing and screenplay writing for the first time, and we have increased our outreach, with supported events at Cawdor Castle, in Tornagrain and in rural East Nairnshire, and a larger schools programme to include some exciting music workshops for younger primary children this year.

“The festival is bookended by two family-friendly days of free outdoor performance, slam poetry, street art, music and fancy dress parades with a Town Centre Takeover and nature-based activities, and an insect-themed parade on our Finale Day.

“The festival would not get off the ground without its funders and sponsors. Haventus has generously agreed to support us for three years, which is a game-changer for us, giving us some welcome security and the ability to plan forward. Tornagrain has also been a key supporter this year.

“And we are very grateful to receive public funding, with Creative Scotland and Event Scotland playing an essential part in ensuring we can continue to offer a fresh, creative programme of events, accessible to all, as the longest-standing and largest annual festival of its kind in the North and East of Scotland.

“Audiences are bigger than ever, despite the challenges facing us all, and we are really looking forward to seeing them at what we expect to be a very ‘buzzy’ festival again this year.”

This year’s newly commissioned cover artwork for the festival’s programme is by Highland Pop artist Michael Forbes, featuring Nairn’s most legendary regular visitor of days gone by, Charlie Chaplin.

Festival highlights

· A Town Centre Takeover with free performance and music, including stilt walkers, aerial demonstrations and many more local performers.

· The Highland Book Prize award ceremony, which launches the festival’s literary programme, featuring talks by shortlisted authors David Greig, Alan Warner, Kapka Kassabova, Sally Nugent and James Macdonald Lockhart.

· Jackie Kay, former Scots Makar and one of the UKs most loved and lauded poets, will discuss her career and latest work at her festival talk, and will also visit the local secondary school, Nairn Academy.

· Irvine Welsh makes his debut public appearance in Nairn, to talk about his extensive career as author, playwright, screenplay writer and director.

· Sally Magnusson returns to the festival to discuss her latest novel, Music in the Dark- she will be interviewed by leading literary agent, Jenny Brown OBE.

· James Crawford, author and presenter of BBC1 Scotland’s Scotland From The Sky, will talk about his recently-published book Wild History: Journeys into Lost Scotland.

· Findlay Napier’s performance, with the support by the Iona Lane Duo.

· Gaelic New Writers Award winner Shelagh Campbell reads from her first book Far Na Slighe in a Gaelic language event, while Gaelic authors Calum L MacLeòid and June Graham will visit local schools.

· An Open Exhibition with the theme of ‘The Domestic and the Wild’, showcasing artwork by professional and amateur artists from across the North and North-East of Scotland and the Islands.

· The festival’s Finale: a day of free outdoor music and creative activity for all the family.

You can find out more about the festival and book your tickets at www.nairnfestival.co.uk.

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