A new independent book festival celebrating Sheffield\u2019s local bookshops, small publishers and emerging literary talent launched in Kelham Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Sheffield Indie Book Festival, held on 25 and 26 April, brought together readers, writers, booksellers and local creatives across three venues in one of the city\u2019s best-known independent districts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sarah Scales, one of the event organisers, said: \u201cIt’s lovely to be able to show the breadth of the book community in Sheffield and bring people together to celebrate it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis weekend is also about showcasing Sheffield’s literary community, especially in response to growing concerns facing independent businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among the booksellers involved was Novel, a bookshop and caf\u00e9 based in Crookes, which recently announced its closure due to safety concerns and a lack of support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Events were hosted at The Lodge, The Chapel and The Mowbray, with visitors attending author talks, browsing book stalls and supporting local makers throughout the weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Local craft businesses also played a key role in creating the festival\u2019s community atmosphere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Evie Godfrey, illustrator and owner of Ragtag Ratbag, was one of several creatives running stalls at The Mowbray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They said: \u201cEvents like this are important ways of championing human-made art, especially in an age of AI.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Godfrey added that the event was also \u201cgreat for networking with other creative people\u201d and said Sheffield had maintained a strong creative identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Isabel Hornby, University of Sheffield student, said: \u201cBeing in a room with other people who all share the same passion for books is something that can\u2019t be replicated<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cToday has made me feel very connected to Sheffield’s community. This may be the best weekend I\u2019ve had in Sheffield\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This book festival joins a multitude of annual events hosted at Kelham Island, including the Kelham Victorian Christmas Market and the Steel City Beer and Cider Festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These events have played a major role in shaping Kelham\u2019s growing reputation as a vibrant hub for independent culture and creativity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Organisers said money raised from ticket sales will help fund the festival\u2019s return next year and support future independent literary events, following what many described as a highly successful debut weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Sheffield Indie Book Festival attracted authors, publishers and readers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":282,"featured_media":60808,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,159,5,1],"tags":[766,1084,80,12],"class_list":["post-60827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-education-2","category-news","category-uncategorized","tag-books","tag-independant-business","tag-kelham-island","tag-sheffield"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/282"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60827"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61711,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60827\/revisions\/61711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shef-live.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}