What's it like to be the new boy on the festival block? The latest member of the team, Charles Haynes, tells all about his first five days working on the world's oldest literature festival.
This year I’m the proverbial new kid on the literature festival team. Many of the others are dab-hands at this, some of them 6 or 7 years into a life stretch, but this year’s festival will be a fresh experience for me. Even still - I’m not the only one feeling the excitement leading up to the festival; it’s quite palpable in the office.
The more experienced team members regale me with tales of mid-festival camaraderie, half-shared sandwiches between events, favourite authors of years’ past and stories that start with the enigmatic ‘you should have been there…’.
Among all this talk of legendary festivals though, they say this year will be special. Old stories include bedraggled queuing in the rain; even older stories include long forgotten venues across town. This year though, we’re compact, we’re concise… we’re all covered-up. We’re in the festival quarter!
In a single, albeit large corner of Cheltenham we’re planning a literary paradise, and everyone’s invited. So, whether this is my first literature festival or my twenty-first, there’s a feeling that this may very well be the best.
The festival's just eight weeks away now, and I absolutely can't wait....
Charles Haynes
Festival Manager
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