PICTURES: Nairn Book and Arts Festival 2022 takes over the town celebrating Scotland's Year of Stories
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The 19th Nairn Book and Arts Festival got off to a flying start at the weekend, with a fancy-dress High Street Takeover and story-themed flag parade.
The streets were buzzing while Forres and District Pipe Band entertained the crowd on Saturday.
The weekend continued with talks on Sunday at Nairn’s fine art foundry, Black Isle Bronze, a walking tour of the High Street with historian John Urquhart, a talk by artist Helen Wright about her mural of Isobel Gowdie’s life (The Witch of Auldearn) and a tour and investigation of Auldearn Cemetery with historian Stuart Farrell and Highland Paranormal.
And Nairn’s Little Theatre was host to the premiere performance of local young theatre group Crimson Tea Productions.
This year’s festival programme is inspired by the Year of Stories, including talks, workshops and live music at Nairn Community and Arts Centre starting today with the preview of Every Picture Tells a Story, an open exhibition of work by over 50 artists and a talk by the artistic director of Kinetika about the international arts company’s work.
The line-up for the week features extreme painting by artist Jonathan Shearer on his techniques for painting outdoors in the Highlands, while talks by acclaimed authors during the festival include Dr Gavin Francis discussing the art of convalescence, historical fiction writer Andrew Greig discussing his new novel Rose Nicolson, acclaimed Scots writer James Robertson discussing new book News of the Dead, Sean Lusk on his debut novel The Secret Life of Zachary Cloudesley and Iain Cameron, mountaineer and author of The Vanishing Ice looking at the environmental impact of climate change.
The popular genre of crime writing comes into focus on Saturday afternoon with Wine and Crime; bestselling author Mary Paulson Ellis leads the line-up which features Martin Edwards who will be discussing his own prolific career, then joins Invernessian author and biographer of Josephine Tey, Jennifer Morag Henderson in conversation.
The festival also has an active outreach programme, bringing environmental artist and storyteller Gordon Maclellan, authors Kenneth Steven and Ross Sayers, and Gaelic writer and musician Marcus Mac An Tuairneir, into local primary and secondary schools.
There will be live music from acclaimed traditional musicians Andy Thorburn and Gordon Gunn with poetry by playwright and Caithness Makar George Gunn, and an end of tour set from Martin Stephenson and his Good Will Trio.
On Sunday – the festival’s final day – will see more author events, live music at James’s on the Putting Green, storytelling in English, Doric, Gaelic and Scots at the Wallace Bandstand and Little Theatre with Lizzie McDougall, Jackie Ross, Margaret Bennet and Jess Smith, a children’s costumed Wandering Woodland parade, creative events celebrating the natural environment with Nature 4 Health, and the colourful Stories of Nairn flags displayed on the Links – created to celebrate the myths, legends and community stories of Nairn.
To book tickets for festival events, visit www.nairnfestival.co.uk
