Wexford's annual Opera Festival is always accompanied by many fringe art and performance events. This year was no different and included the Red Books literary fringe festival – “Theatre in the Bookshop”.
Red Books hosted sixteen events, comprising of live music, spoken-word, book launches, history and family friendly events like Dinosaurs in the Bookshop and the Halloween Creepy Classics Carnival.
Four new Wexford books were launched as part of the festival.
“Its always important to remember our rich literary heritage and highlight the current culture of writing in Wexford during the world famous Opera Festival,” Red Books owner Wally O’ Neill said. “We launched four new books; ‘Mayglass Holy Tower’ by Bernard Browne, ‘My Recollections’ by Greg Ryan, ‘Pacific Deeps’ by Liam Mullen and the sixth Wexford Bohemian, edited by Alanna Hammel and featuring the works of twenty nine writers and artists.”
“We also ran OUTSPOKEN spoken-word open-mics, live music with Martina Byrne & Friends and the Driftwood Sessions, local photography artist Deborah Doyle’s first solo exhibition, as well as an art exhibition by Ita Grattan.”
Red Books also featured prominently at the 53rd annual Wexford Book Fair, taking place in the Talbot Hotel on Sunday the 20th. This event featured book and collectibles dealers from across Ireland. It also featured the launch of an eagerly awaited local book from Red Books Press, “Mayglass Holy Tower” by Bernard Browne.
Among the other events at Red Books Fringe was a Halloween Cosplay competition, a spoken-word open-mic for teens and younger, a dinosaur show, a history talk on the theatre of trade in the town and a lecture on Satanic Serial Killers. All the events were free but donations were accepted for the Sanctuary Mental Wellness initiative.
“We received visitors from across Ireland and the world during the festival. It’s the duty of a bookshop to highlight our rich and diverse literary culture to these visitors. Local works were placed prominently, among our 250,000 strong inventory of books.”