A Year of Music & Words

In 2022 Newark Book Festival returned to its true form, with four days of author events, workshops, heritage walks, book signings, family fun and street theatre. The Literature Village in Newark’s famous market place was for the first time a four-day affair, hosting 51 stallholders selling books, illustrations and gifts aplenty!

The theme for 2022 was the wonderful world of music and writing – this was reflected in the programme which included West End stars, renowned Beatles biographer Mark Lewisohn, BBC Radio’s John Holmes MBE, plus the welcome return of Kadiatu, Aminata and Konya Kanneh-Mason who filled the Palace Theatre with glorious music on the final evening of the Festival.

Prior to the main festival, we were so pleased to re-establish our schools’ programme. Fifteen schools in Newark and Sherwood enjoyed author visits, creative workshops and the opportunity to be part of the Young Journalists Academy. Festival Thursday also saw the regal Newark Town Hall play host to two special school events, with young people hearing from established children’s authors LD Lapinski and Darren Simpson.

On Sunday, in the grounds of Newark Castle, children of all ages could earn their Arts Award by spotting Borrowers, playing word games and making and creating with our writer and artist friends. Well done to all the children who took part!

A total of 215 writers, artists and creatives were warmly welcomed to the 2022 festival and helped to make it a success.

The book festival fun continued well after the banners were taken down in Newark. After a successful pop-up festival in Edwinstowe the previous year, we took that model and curated a series of pop-up festivals in and around the Newark and Sherwood district. This included working with partners Bilsthorpe Heritage Museum, The National Holocaust Centre and Museum, The Hopbarn and Cat Asylum Brewery as well as running festival days in the towns of Southwell and Edwinstowe, bringing authors and poets to new settings and new audiences in the region.

Rounding off the year, we returned to Newark in December for a duo of festive events, plus we popped up at the Dickensian Steampunk Market with our friends Rhubarb Theatre entertaining Christmas shoppers.

2022 Festival Funders

A big thank you, as always, to our 2022 festival volunteers, funders, sponsors, festival friends, partner venues and supporters.