New children's book festival 'open to everyone'

A new book festival for children will be "open and accessible to everyone", regardless of whether they can afford a ticket, organisers say.

Brimscombe Mill Kids Book Fest will take place in Stroud from 9-10 October, with event tickets costing £4.50, although free tickets are available with "no judgement, no criteria", Jo Mansell from Brimscombe Mill said.

The festival will feature a secondhand bookshop, along with workshops and signings from local and national authors and illustrators such as Wren James, Alex T Smith, and Hannah Shaw.

Brimscombe Mill operates a pay-as-you-can restaurant, which will offer book-themed food during the festival, including the Bruce Bogtrotter cake from Matilda.

Mansell said: "We've created this [festival] amongst all of our normal values that we have at Brimscombe Mill, which is to make it open and accessible to everyone.

"We never want cost to be a barrier."

The festival will also include free table tennis tables, crafts, and a scavenger hunt.

But Mansell hopes Book Fest will also be accessible to readers of all levels of dedication, whether they "spend every night reading, or just want to come down and hear an exciting magic show".

The festival coincides with the National Year of Reading, and Shaw, author of the Unipiggle the Unicorn Pig series, said finding ten minutes in the day to read to children "makes such a difference".

"Obviously that's a lot of pressure for parents and I think it's just when you can fit it in," Shaw said.

"So even if it's not at bedtime, if it's five minutes before they go to school... it's just a really nice thing to do and get them off screens."

Alice Hodge from Stroud is one parent who bought tickets for her children to attend an event at Book Fest.

"I bought two tickets for my two sons, I have paid for them but I did notice there was an option you could make a lesser donation or pay nothing at all," she said.

Hodge said she does not often take her children to similar festivals, "but when it's so accessible, I'll definitely make the effort".

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