Kenilworth Arts Festival is an exciting new festival taking place across a range of venues in the historic town of Kenilworth between the 12-18 September.

There are close connections between the festival and the University, as not only is Warwick sponsoring the festival but two directors of the festival, Lewis Smith and Charlotte Thomas, are current students at Warwick, and a number of the artists are university staff and alumni.

For one week in September, the town will be transformed into a hive of creative exploration; a celebration of art, imagination, community and Kenilworth with headline events, workshops, art trails, a free, open-air gathering, and much more.

University of Warwick student, staff and alumni connections

The programme features intimate gigs, poetry readings, talks, workshops and a free, open-air fiesta in Abbey Fields. Many of the events have University of Warwick connections including:

• David Morley (Department for English and Comparative Literary Studies) is curating an evening of poetry as part of the festival programme. Five other award-winning poets will appear alongside David, including a number of Warwick alumni (Claire Trévien, Luke Kennard and Jonathan Edwards)
• Kitty Macfarlane, singer-songwriter and Warwick alumna, is appearing at a concert in Kenilworth Castle on Saturday 17 September
• Victoria Watson, Warwick alumnus, produced the illustrations that appear on the festival’s website and on promotional materials
• Warwick Arts Centre will be running interactive workshops at Fiesta, the free open-air event in Abbey Fields on Sunday 18 September
• Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi, writer-in-residence at Lacuna (a project stemming from the Centre for Human Rights in Practice at Warwick), is running a workshop on human rights journalism

You can see a full programme of events here.