Authors ~ Storytellers ~ Poets ~ Musicians ~ Acrobats
Discussions ~ Readings ~ Talks ~ Performances
#90B47E
MONDAY 2nd MAY
Dawn Chorus - where the Festival begins!
DAWN CHORUS - created by dawn sky and dewdrops, birdsong and beauty, minstrels and musicians, storytellers and circus skills, poets and performers, and celebrated by them and you!
Lawn Woods, High Street, Old Town SN1 3EN
5.30am! ~ Monday 3rd May ~ Free!
As the sun rises over sleeping Swindon, this all-weather outdoor event marks the start of the twenty-ninth Swindon Festival of Literature.
BURN & RAVE – an outdoor performance from DANCE SIX-0.
Lydiard Park, by the House West Swindon SN5 3PA
1.30pm ~ 2nd May ~ Free!
Wiltshire dance company DANCE SIX-0 perform their newest work Burn & Rave, inspired by Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas. This brilliant fiery 15-minute outdoor performance reflects on stages of life, what we want from it, what we learn, and what we leave behind.
A WALK IN THE PARK - for health, well-being, and good chats along the way!
Lydiard Park, by the House, West Swindon SN5 3PA
2pm ~ 2nd May ~ Free!
Join Festival followers for a short walk, by the big lake, under the greenwood trees, and back through the park, for a cup of tea, a biscuit, and friendship.
FREEDOM RUN – a gentle 5k run in lovely Lydiard Park with lots of friendly and supportive Swindon parkrunners and two brilliant movement-loving authors.
Presented in association with Lydiard parkrun & Seven Fields parkrun www.parkrun.org.uk/lydiard
Lydiard Park, by the House, West Swindon SN5 3PA
2pm ~ 2nd May ~ Free!
The run will be followed by a short rest, with refreshing REFRESHMENTS, and then two authors talking and answering questions!
ISABEL HARDMAN & CAROLINE WILLIAMS – on the benefits of movement and exercise, outdoors!
Lydiard Conference Centre, Lydiard Park, West Swindon SN5 3PA
Tel 01793 535534 (11am to 6pm)
3pm ~ 2nd May ~ £8 (£7)
As well as love, money, and music, what else is really good for our health, happiness, and well-being? Answers: movement, exercise, and the great outdoors. But why? And what else can we do to stay healthy in both body and mind?
Two authors have a few reassuring and helpful answers.
In her book The Natural Health Service, former Journalist of the Year, author and broadcaster Isabel Hardman draws on her own personal experience and the latest research to examine what role nature and exercise can play in improving both physical and mental well being.
In her book Move! - The New Science of Body Over Mind, science journalist and features editor Caroline Williams explores the emerging science of how movement opens up a hotline to our minds, showing how walking can improve cognitive skills, stretching can combat mental ailments, and how exercise changes the way we think and feel.
CHARLIE CORBETT - on nature’s lessons for happiness, from feathered friends.
Lower Shaw Farm, West Swindon SN5 5PJ
Tel 01793 535534 (11am to 6pm)
6.30pm ~ 2nd May ~ £6 (5)
What is the place of birds and birdsong in our lives? What does birdsong do for you? Do you have favourites? Would you like to know where and how to hear others?
In his new life-affirming book, 12 Birds to Save Your Life, journalist Charlie Corbett, who spent part of his childhood roaming free in the fields of a farm in Wiltshire, shows that delight, solace, and joy can be ours by watching birds with an open ear, eye, and heart.
