Margaret Atwood, Bob Geldof and Cillian Murphy are heading to Borris, Carlow from June 8th - 10th for the Festival of Writing and Ideas 2018.
The famous faces will join some of Ireland's greatest writers, comics, spoken word artists and performers for a weekend of panel discussions, stand-up... and even a spot of glamping.
The wonderful Anne Enright speaking at the #writingandideas launch about being at our Festival from the start...
— Borris Festival (@Writingandideas) May 28, 2018
‘A curiosity led festival which matches books with music with politics’ pic.twitter.com/VBhty8TDMq
At the festival's launch in Dublin, we spoke with festival co-founder Hugo Jellett to get the history of the festival and the secret to procuring their all-star line-ups. Watch the interview in full above.
"Seven years ago, when we started, we started with about twenty writers and it might sound a little clichéd, but - they had a really good time.
"And so those twenty writers told their friends, and when we began to ask people the second year and the third and the fourth year, we found them saying 'yes' really readily.
the seat of the High Kings of Leinster.
He continued: "It really comes down to Ian McEwan [author of Atonement] coming and having just such an incredible time, that he told all of his writing colleagues that they need to do the same.
If the word 'literary' brings Leaving Cert English Paper 2 to mind, fear not. This event is as much about having the craic as it about dialogue and discourse.
"The thing about coming down to Borris," says Hugo, "is that it disarms you completely - and not just you, it also disarms the writer or the speaker - and so you find after a little bit that you're sitting down hearing the speaker, who you admire, asking you about your life."
He continued: "It breaks people down in this beautiful informal way. And so the whole idea that grown adults might turn to camping to go to a literary festival suddenly became something really quite real."
As for Hugo himself, his top picks for the festival include Max Porter, Cillian Murphy and Enda Walsh discussing their recent play Grief is the Thing with Feathers; Bob Geldof's talk with Roy Foster about Yeats; Donna Tartt's chat with Rick Stroud about writing, art and adventure; Neil Delamere's interview with Director Stephen Bradley; John Lloyd's three panel discussions and Sean Hardie's history of satire.
Tickets for the Festival of Writing and Ideas 2018 are on sale now - buy tickets & find more info here.
