Essex Book Festival Director, Ros Green, was delighted to attend the second conference of the Global Association of Festival Directors last week in Lagos, Nigeria hosted by Ake Arts and Book Festival.
Twenty three delegates took part in the event, travelling from Australia, the USA, UK, UAE, Norway, Turkey, Cyprus, Portugal, and Trinidad & Tobago, joining festivals from Ghana, Kenya, Botswana and Nigeria. Festivals in Canada, Germany and the Netherlands joined virtually. Among the topics discussed were future collaborations, fund-raising and the shape of festivals to come.
Speaking about her unique experience, Ros said
“There is always something exciting about a gathering of like-minded individuals, in this case twenty three book/literary festival directors from around the world. But what was even more exciting was the huge enthusiasm from everyone to work together on a whole range of new international collaborations. If someone told me last week that Essex Book Festival could well be partnering with West African-based Hausa International Book and Arts Festival on a cross-border archival project in 2023/2024, I wouldn’t have had a clue what they were talking about. Now I can barely contain my excitement… “