IRON IN THE SOUL - June 8-11 2017
The Third IRON Press Festival of Words, Music & Oddities
Cullercoats, June 8-11, 2017
After two highly successful celebrations in 2013 and 2015, Cullercoats publisher IRON Press has announced news of a third festival, IRON in the Soul, to be held in June 2017.
Once again, the distinctive North East village sea front will play host to a succession of eye-catching and unusual events combining the famous and the downright odd.
Poet Ian McMillan returns following his riotous performance in the Crescent Club in 2013 and one of the UK's leading polymaths, Raymond Tallis (whose first two books were published by IRON Press) has also been booked to appear.
St. George's Church will host a midnight launch of Cold IRON, an anthology of new 21st century ghost stories while the Boat Yard Cafe offers an Existential Breakfast to accompany an early-bird talk by Dr Colin Campbell titled Existentialism – What's All That About?
Poets will take on prose writers in a cricket match prior to Owzat!, a reading by David Phillips and S.J.Litherland on their books of cricket poems published by the press.
An opening event at The Crescent Club will celebrate Cullercoats itself, with a short play about Cullercoats Fishermen by North Tyneside writer Ruth Henderson, traditional dancing from The Cloggies and the distinctive sea shanty harmonies of the group, The Keelers, who have performed throughout the world.
Poets will be able to craft their own handmade books and will also invited to submit their poems to be put to music by leading NE musicians who will perform the results in the festival itself.
Once again The Festival hopes to use The Crescent Club, The Community Centre, The Fishermen's Mission, the RNLI, The Salt House and the Watch House, this year also including recent additions to the village life, The Bike & Kayak Centre and The Boat Yard. Once again the Festival Fringe will take place on the bottom corner of Mast Lane and there are plans for a late-night club.
IRON Press editor Peter Mortimer commented, “The unique nature of Cullercoats, plus the unusual mix of events and venues has helped to make the first two festivals very special and distinctive, attracting large numbers to the village. We fully intend to carry on in that vein.”
The first festival, The IRON Age won the Best Event Tyneside category in the 2014 Journal Culture Awards. The second festival was titled Eclectic IRON.