SPOTLIGHT Bath Festivals
CAST A SPELL ON YOU “Reading is magic and magic is for everyone,” says UK Waterstone’s Laureate Cressida Cowell. The fairy godmothers at Bath Festivals took her words to heart, joining forces with book festivals around the globe to whip up the Reading is Magic Festival. An allstar line-up of authors and illustrators are on board for six days of free digital events for schools and families from 27 September to 2 October. Seeing all Bath’s summer events cancelled or postponed was hard, but the loss of this year’s Bath Children’s Literature Festival – and the inspiring
authors and illustrators it brings to engage the children of Bath – was a particular blow to the soul. But nothing, not even a pandemic, can keep Bath’s bookish heart down for long, and this inclusive event promoting creativity and shared experiences with big name authors like Chris Riddell, Dapo Adeola, Nathan Byron, Robin Stevens and Jasbinder Bilan (more from her on page 82) among many others will ensure local children don’t have to go an entire year without seeing their literary favourites ‘live’. For more: www.readingismagicfestival.com
The Baths held their own among some formidable competition
VisitEngland Awards
MEDAL OF HONOUR
Bath’s tourist attractions had a great night at the VisitEngland Awards on 17 August. Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa, the Roman Baths & Pump Room and the Herschel Museum of Astronomy all ended the night with silver awards in their respective categories – large hotel for Lucknam, large visitor attraction for The Roman & Pump Room Baths and small attraction for the Herschel Museum. It was a particularly exciting night for the Baths, which was the only attraction in their category outside of London and nominated alongside the Old Royal Naval College and Warner Brothers Studios: The Making of Harry Potter. For more: www.visitbritain.org
CLOCKWISE: Nathan Byron; Sharna Jackson; Cressida Cowell
Lockdown hit the Abbey hard
Bath Abbey
A HELPING HAND
Bath Abbey has received a £155,800 boost from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Closed for 15 weeks in adherence with Covid-19 guidelines, the team at the Abbey reckon they lost out on close to 150,000 visitors – not to mention all the missed events at Easter. Usually, this would be one of the busiest times of the year for the Abbey, but even now they can onl admit a significantl reduced number of visitors ever day. The loss of income will have far-reaching consequences, but this much-needed cash injection will certainly help support the heritage and community work the Abbey does. For more: www.heritagefund.org.uk
www.mediaclash.co.uk I BATH LIFE I 9
