Pontypridd Children’s Book Festival 2021: A Wonderful Weekend of Amazing Authors and Brilliant Books!

Young readers and their parents enjoyed a jam-packed programme of events last weekend at Pontypridd Children’s Book Festival, with stellar names like David Baddiel and Kate Pankhurst featuring in the line-up.

This year’s festival - the biggest yet- was held online on Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th May. Now in its fourth year, the Pontypridd Children’s Book Festival continues to grow in its scale and ambition to encour-age a love of books and reading for pleasure while having a fun-filled time doing so.

This year’s event was a little different to usual, with all the action taking place online. Thanks to the support of our partners Pontypridd Town Council, we were able to base the festival in the Mayor’s Parlour for the weekend, which would ordinarily be used as our authors’ greenroom. From there, the team broadcast 10 events online over Saturday and Sunday, with little bookworms tuning in from the comfort of their homes.

The festival attracted lots of local families and schools, with many getting in touch via our social media channels and the festival website’s chat function. Virtual visitors from all over the globe dropped in to Pon-typridd over the weekend too — with festival-goers tuning in from as far afield as Melbourne in Australia!

Even though we were interacting through screens, we were so pleased that a festival atmosphere prevailed, with parents sending in pictures of children enjoying the talks and getting stuck-in to the many activities on offer. Children (and parents too!) were keen to engage with the authors, with a wide variety of topics and ideas explored.

Events varied from interactive storytelling sessions, illustration workshops and a writing workshop with Wales’ Children’s Laureate, Eloise Williams to author talks given by a fantastic line-up of big names and local talent from the worlds of children’s fiction and non- fiction.

A definite highlight of the weekend was receiving a message from a very happy Mum whose son had asked David Baddiel a question. She told us that “…having his question answered by his hero has meant so much to him!”

We were also pleased to mark National Children’s Day UK on the Sunday, a UN based initiative dedicated to childhood and promoting the rights of children. In particular, a session with campaigner Laura Coryton, who discussed her book Speak Up! with BBC Wales’ Parliamentary Correspondent Elliw Gwawr, inspired the young participants to get involved in world issues and work towards making positive changes for the fu-ture.

We’re thrilled by our ongoing partnership with Pontypridd Town Council, with whom we hope to develop the festival even further. As a festival we are deeply rooted in the local community and working with Ponty-pridd Town Council, along with the many other community groups and initiatives they support will strengthen those links and the cultural wellbeing of the area for years to come — with local collaboration and community involvement a key shared principle. We’re already looking forward to next year’s Pontypridd Children’s Book Festival, and have some really exciting plans to announce over the coming months!

In the meantime, you can still catch-up with this year’s festival for another week.

Go to our website pontykidsbookfest.co.uk where you can rewatch each event.

See you all soon and remember — keep reading!