Due to the ongoing uncertainty caused by the corona virus crisis, the team behind the inaugural Filey Literature Festival have made the decision to move the event back twelve months to the weekend of 21-23 May 2021.

It was a difficult decision given the work that has gone into organising Filey’s first-ever literature festival. However, it was perhaps inevitable given the scale of the crisis facing the country at the present time.

The speakers booked for the festival have all promised to reappear in 2021. Their willingness to reschedule is a wonderful gesture, as is the agreement of the festival sponsors to carry their support over to the new dates.

All tickets will be valid for the new dates. Anyone who is unable to make the new dates will be entitled to a refund, but obviously at the moment it is impossible to begin that process until life returns to something like normality. A further announcement will be made in the coming weeks.

Festival chair, David Pendleton, said: ‘We have postponed the event with heavy hearts, but in reality we were left with little choice in these testing times. I want to thank our speakers, sponsors, venues and ticket holders for their support and I look forward to welcoming them all to Filey in 2021.

‘In particular I would like to acknowledge the hard work of Jeannie Williams and Chris Lee in bringing together a fabulous programme of events for Filey. We are all volunteers and we were passionate about bringing a high-quality literature festival to our seaside town. Sadly, we are having to endure a twelve month delay, but we look forward to the future and to May 2021.’

The new dates are as follows:

Friday 21 May 2021

Poetry Dinner with Valley Press
Tommy’s, 5 Hope Street, 5.30pm-7pm
£10
Friday 22 May

Ian McMillan and Luke Carver Goss
Evron Centre, 7.30pm
£12

Saturday 22 May 2021

Hull Storytellers
10.21 Hull-Filey Train

Book Fair
Evron Centre, 10am-3pm
Free

Filey, fishing port and resort
Michael Fearon,
Filey Museum, Queen Street 1pm-2pm
Donation to the museum

Brontë Poetry Workshop, Wendy Pratt,
Evron Centre, Rooms 21/22, 12pm-2pm
£20, must be pre-booked

Frances Brody
Evron Centre, Rooms 21/22, 2.30-3.30pm
£10 incl. cream tea

Nick Holland
The Lost Essay of Anne Brontë
Evron Centre, Rooms 21/22, 6pm-7pm
£5

‘Hannah Hauxwell: No Through Road’,
A play by Shelagh McKay and Karen McDonnell
Evron Centre, 7.30pm
£12

Sunday 23 May 2021

Seascapes Writer’s Workshop, Wendy Pratt,
Evron Centre, Rooms 21/22, 12pm-2pm
£20, must be pre-booked

The Wildness Pleases: Changing Responses to the Yorkshire Coast 1700-1850
Dr George Sheeran
Evron Centre, Concert Hall, 3pm-4pm
£4

Saying Stuff, local writers and authors
Foords public house, Queen Street, 5pm-7pm
Free

Amanda Owen, the Yorkshire Shepherdess
Evron Centre, 7.30pm, Sold Out!