Welcome to Towers and Tales 2021!

We are excited to share our full programme with you online, which includes online festival events for Saturday 1st of May, a schools programme, book-gifting programme and the announcement of two Artists in Residence. You can book festival events through the website here and read about the other dimensions of the programme. If you are involved with a school in Waterford city or county and are interested in the book-gifting or school programme, information will be winging its way to you directly in April. We look forward to working with you, whether by beaming an event into your home on Saturday, 1st May or into your school on Friday 30th April, or by hearing about your school’s interest in book gifting. We are grateful to our funders and to our partners for helping us bring you this programme and we very much hope to meet you in person in Lismore next summer.

The Towers and Tales Team

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Website Illustrations by Jennifer Farley

A Note On Festival Events This Year:

Our events this year will be carefully filmed in advance to be brought to you online in as lively a way as possible. When you book a festival event, you will receive confirmation from Eventbrite, and in the days before the festival, an email from Towers and Tales with a link and password to your video and any downloads or resources that accompany it, and instructions for anything you need to have ready in advance (such as pencils or paper). The video may be 20 minutes in duration, but has been edited to allow you pause and complete tasks and activities at your own pace. Parental involvement is encouraged – both for the shared experience and to help little hands with their activities.

10:00am

Zim Zam Alacazú!

Suas leat ar an chairpéad draíochta chun taisteal ar thuras speisialta scéalaíochta le scríbhneoir Máire Zepf! Éist leis an scéal, foghlaim na focail draíochta agus déan do ghuí féin. Físeán idirgníomhach lán-Ghaeilge, chomh maith le tasc cruthaitheach le déanamh sa bhaile.
All aboard the magic carpet with Máire Zepf for a special storytelling journey! Listen to the story, learn the magic words and make your very own wish. Interactive Irish-language video, and a creative task for you to complete at home.

Event Details

**Age range suitable for:**
4-8 years (parental involvement preferred for some tasks)
**Duration:**
45 minutes including video and creative tasks to be completed at own pace.
**Book focused on:**
Rita agus an Lampa Draíochta
**Additional Resources:**
Downloadable creative tasks will accompany this workshop
**Date and Time:**
10am, Saturday 1st May 2021
**Price:**
€5.00 per child or €10.00 euro per family

Book Your Place

11:00am

MY OWN LITTLE ALBUM

Join award-winning illustrator Tarsila Krüse on a drawing journey through your favourite theme or topic! Prompted by the pages of her book ***My Little Album of Dublin*** (co-authored with Juliette Saumande, published by The O'Brien Press) and fueled by your own imagination, you’ll create an 8-page *Little Album of Your Own -* all yours to keep!

Event Details:

**Age range suitable for:**
7-10 year olds (parental involvement preferred for some tasks)
**Duration:**
1 hour (Includes video elements and time for undertaking tasks)
**Book focused on:**
My Little Album of Dublin
**Additional Resources:**
The Little Album template will be available for download on the website as a printing resource. A special page for an inspirational treasure hunt will be added as a bonus.
**Date and Time**:
11am, Saturday 1st May 2021
**Price:**
€5.00 per child or €10.00 euro per family

Book Your Place

12:00pm

DRAW A MAP WITH SCOUT

Join Jennifer Farley who will show you how to draw your own maps and bring Scout on another adventure. Visit a treasure island with mountains, volcanos, a Skull Cave and more!

Event Details:

**Age range suitable for:**
5–10 year olds (parental involvement preferred for some tasks)
**Duration:**
30 minute video which includes time for tasks
**Book focused on:**
Scout’s Best Day Ever – A Doggy Adventure
**Additional Resources:**
Download showing how to draw a fantasy style map with Scout will be available in advance
**Date and Time:**
12:00pm, Saturday 1st May 2021
**Price:**
€5.00 per child or €10.00 euro per family

Book Your Place

2:00pm

MINI BEAST TRAIL – A FAMILY NATURE ADVENTURE

Would you love to find out about mini beasts and maybe event meet some of them – like worms, snails and wood lice? Join Alan and Sarah for this fun mini beast safari.

You will learn some magnificent mini-beast facts from Sarah and Alan, and Alan will show you how to draw a beard full of mini beasts. Use your own bug jar to collect and study your own mini beast in your back garden or local park or open area. (Don’t worry, all beasts will be released at the end of the safari!). Not for the squeamish!

Event Details

**Age range suitable for:**
Family event (parental involvement preferred)
**Duration:**
45 minutes (plus self-directed collecting mini beasts time)
**Book focused on:**
Animal Crackers
**Additional Resources:**
Animal Detective Pack will be made available to you before the event!
**Date and Time**:
2pm, Saturday 1st May 2021
**Price**:
€10.00 per family

Book Your Place

3:30pm

TEN TOP STRATEGIES FOR FOSTERING YOUR CREATIVITY - With Sarah Moore Fitzgerald

Becoming more creative is a great way to support your wellbeing and confidence. It’s especially important for us to keep our creative spirits up during the Covid-19 restrictions. In this workshop, Sarah will talk about the ten strategies that anyone can use to tap into and foster their creative capabilities. She’ll talk about how creativity involves a brilliant balance of work and play and she’ll take you through some simple exercises to prove just how creative you can be.

Event Details

**Age range suitable for:**
9+
**Duration:**
45 minutes which includes some time for participants to create their own creativity plan
**Date and Time:**
3.30pm, Saturday 1st May 2021
**Price:**
€5.00 per child or €10.00 euro per family

Book Your Place

Inspiration Station

Make your own Nature Journal and/or Stick Scroll - This event is free all day Saturday, May 1st.

Create your own books, creatures and characters at Lismore Castle Arts creative hub. Inspired by nature, our learning team will show you how to turn sticks, leaves and paper into your own incredible creations at home.
Activities will be available here throughout Saturday 1st May together with a list of any materials you need to gather in advance! No booking necessary.
Make your own Nature Journal
Make your own Stick Scroll
Brought to you by Lismore Castle Arts.
See more videos and resources on Lismore Castle Arts website:
https://www.lismorecastlearts.ie/education/

Take part in this event

Book gifting

Book gifting is at the core of what we do at Towers and Tales – giving the gift of reading to young people who may not have ready access to books, to inspire and create a lifelong love of reading and creativity. Since Towers and Tales’ inception, more than 2700 books have been gifted to schools across Waterford.

Book gifting applications will be distributed to schools alongside schools programme information in April with announcements and book gifting to the successful schools to take place in May. This programme is supported by our partners in the Waterford City and County Library Service.

Donate Today

Schools Programme

Our free schools programme aims to give school children throughout Waterford County access to authors and illustrators they might never encounter. An extensive programme of free events, developed with the festival’s authors and illustrators will be available remotely to schools in Waterford City and County. This programme is delivered in partnership with Waterford City and County Library Service. Information will be distributed to schools in April and include all booking details. For further information contact us directly!

Artists in Residence

A new addition to programming in 2021 will be the StableYard Residencies which will seek to support artists to create work in Lismore. The recipients of this year’s Artist in Residence awards are Sarah Moore Fitzgerald and Máire Zepf who will each undertake a week’s residency in the beautiful surrounds of Lismore in September 2021.

Máire Zepf

Máire Zepf has written 12 books for children, from picture books to a young adult verse novel. Winner of the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Book of the Year Award, the Réics Carló Award and a White Raven in 2020, her books appear in 8 languages worldwide. The Co. Down author was the first Children’s Writing Fellow for Northern Ireland, based at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry at QUB (2017-19)

Prof Sarah Moore Fitzgerald

**Prof Sarah Moore Fitzgerald** is an award-winning novelist, teacher and researcher based at the University of Limerick. A lifelong creative writer, she has published five novels to date. Her fiction has been translated into over eighteen languages and adapted for the stage in London and Edinburgh. She has been shortlisted for many literary prizes including the Children’s Books Ireland Book of the Year Awards, the Irish Book Awards and UK's Waterstones Prize. Sarah is the founding member of Writepace, a creative writing group based in Limerick. Her sixth novel, *All The Money In The World*, is due out in July.