Stormy Sea at Cullercoats by John Falconar Slater, North Tyneside Council Art Collection
In 2013 to celebrate its 40th anniversary, IRON Press held a celebratory IRON AGE Festival based in seven non-traditional venues round its distinctive Cullercoats harbour seafront and featuring more than 40 writers, singers and performers. The festival was a huge success and won the Best Event Tyneside category in The Journal Arts Awards run by the region's morning newspaper.
Popular opinion saw it become a biennial event. The unique locations (The Fishermen's Mission, Crescent CIU club and RNLI are among the unusual venues) plus the sense of intimacy both add to the atmosphere as famous authors associated with the press, such as Melvyn Bragg, David Almond and Ian McMillan rub shoulders with newcomers and aspirants. Plus which there's an al fresco musical fringe featuring more than 30 singers and musicians.
The fourth festival, IRON OR was held in 2019. Plans for a 2021 Festival were put on hold for obvious reasons and the plan now is to stage a spectacular 50th anniversary festival in 2023 to celebrate the press's continuous half century of supporting new writing.
More news as the situation changes.
