Bath literature festival

Over the weekend I attended the Children's literature festival in Bath. Over the course of the day I attended five events. The first was with Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks and was probably the best event of the day. Lydia had a short spell on stage doing some live illustrating, drawing the characters the children would recognise from the books. The majority of the show was run by Julia and was almost like a theatre production. Julia involves her husband and sister and a few actors to play out the characters within her stories. The words to the stories were sung rather than just being spoken, this method worked very well with the music being played by Julia's husband. This gave me a small insight into how Julia may work, I was able to imagine her sitting with her husband at home, he may come up with a small piece of music on the guitar. Julia probably has thoughts for a story but tries to sing along with the music, the stories she writes may well begin more as songs which explain how her words are so rhythmical. This shows how her own character and the influences around her come out through the stories.
The next event was with Danny Wallace and Jamie Littler and was far more evenly balanced with both being present throughout. They done exercises like Danny reading the first chapter of his book whilst Jamie would illustrate what was being read out. Others included the children making up a character that Jamie would have to draw. Danny also went around with mugs full of pieces of paper with words on them, these would be picked out and then the children would have to instruct Jamie upon what the character may look like, what they would wear, what would signify the characters personality. This event was very inclusive for the children has they all had a major input into the outcome of the illustrations. The working relationship between author and illustrator was very evident and there was a lively feeling throughout as the energy was built up by the children.
The following event was with Michael Rosen and Chris Riddell which comprised of Michael reading from his latest book and Chris illustrating throughout. I was a little disappointed with this event as Michael seemed to just go through each rhyme which became a little repetitive. Chris Riddell however saved the show as his illustrations were not only top quality but also brought humour into the event.
Next came Benji Davies who talked through his first book then created an illustration with all the characters from it in a single image. The children were to name all the characters before he drew them. Benji then ran through his latest release and done a small practical exercise which allowed the children to create toucan birds from paper. This was more interactive for the children although it did seem a little bland.
The final event was with Joe Sugg which was my unknown event. I had watched a few of Joe's youtube videos (known as ThatcherJoe) and to be honest I found him slightly irritating. However I wanted to see why he has become so popular and also why he was a part of the festival. To my surprise I found that Joe had produced a graphic novel with the help of others. Everyone was given a signed copy which is illustrated to a high standard. The event itself turned out to be like a one direction concert filled with screaming teenage girls, this was not what I was expecting but it showed me how dramatically the world is changing through social media.
The aim of my trip to Bath was to see how professionals stage their events at such a festival. I wanted to see if this would be something I would be comfortable doing. The live illustrations seemed pretty much common place, I imagine they are probably nerve racking the first/second time but become easier through time and practise. However I did think that if I am ever fortunate enough to perform on such a stage that I would like to do something a little different, something people would remember. Watching Julia's show with lots of props being used all over the stage I imagined using props that would be brought into the story using projection mapping. The games Danny used to involve the children also seemed like fun for both the children, adults and the host. In fact Danny seems to be able to generate new ideas for new characters which he might introduce into his next novel. In all the thing I grasped was the fact that I have already learned other skill which I could introduce to the staging of such an event, make it fun for and hopefully everyone else at the same time.