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Inspiring Online Events

Our players are helping the Edinburgh International Book Festival keep vital conversations going during the COVID-19 pandemic
A Citizen weekend event performance which took place at North Edinburgh Arts in May 2019

The Edinburgh International Book Festival continues to deliver brilliant events and invigorating projects across Scotland thanks to the incredible support of players of People's Postcode Lottery. This year's Book Festival has had to move online due to the Coronavirus pandemic and will now offer adults and families over 140 inspiring events with writers, poets, politicians, illustrators and comedians from around the world. This year's online Book Festival began on 15th August and runs until 31st August.

Funding from People's Postcode Lottery players, which totals over £1.8 Million to date, enables the Edinburgh International Book Festival to work with partner organisations and help people across Scotland develop meaningful and inspiring connections with books, stories and writing, giving voice to communities and individuals through their On the Road programme.

Life-Enhancing Discussions

The Book Festival is continuing to work on its latest major creative programme, Citizen. Launched in 2018, it has seen hundreds of people from across Edinburgh, particularly in north Edinburgh and Musselburgh, attend events and take part in life-enhancing discussions, writing workshops and creative activities. Working in partnership with community organisations and schools across the city, the Book Festival has appointed two writers-in-residence who have brought people's stories and views on the communities they live in to the fore.

Two of the Citizen events in this year's online Book Festival examine how communities have been affected by the Coronavirus. Healing the Digital Divide looks at the inequality of online access. Rich Thanki, Co-Founder of Jangala, the organisation that delivered WIFI to refugees in Calais, joins Iain MacRitchie, CEO of MCR Pathways - who provided 300 laptops for digitally-excluded young people across Scotland. They will consider what can and must be done to remedy the digital divide.

Power to the People explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected communities across the UK. Jo Hunter, founder of 64 Million Artists, and John Loughton from Scran Academy will discuss how they made the necessary changes to support and serve their communities during the global pandemic.

Finally, Stories and Scran brings people together in an online forum to enjoy readings from participants in the Citizen project and a free meal provided by the Scran Academy which can be ordered by people living in an EH postcode.

Thanks to funding from our players, the Edinburgh International Book Festival continues to be shared by people across Scotland, whatever their age, location, economic or social circumstances

Deserving Causes

So far, players have raised more than £600 Million for over 8,500 good causes. Find out more about some of the superb Charities receiving this incredible support.

Published: 17/08/2020

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