Crowds of people gathering in Wigtown for the first Book Festival.

Silver Anniversary Photo Exhibition

Let’s Make an Exhibition of Ourselves – Share Your Book Festival Photos

Appeal for pictures and memories from Wigtown Book Festivals gone by

Ten-day free exhibition in the specially created Iron & Pine Studio

Visitors to Wigtown Book Festivals gone by are being invited to share their photos for a special celebratory exhibition.  This year’s 25th annual event, from 22 September to 1 October, is an ideal moment to look back at all the marvellous moments and memories that it’s provided.

Festival Artistic Director Adrian Turpin, who is putting together the Festival 25 exhibition, said: “One of the magical things about the festival is that a short visit to a small town in south west Scotland can offer such amazing experiences and be the source of happy memories they talk about and cherish for years, even decades, to come.

“We’re asking people to have a rummage through their photo collections for pictures that sum up the spirit of Wigtown Book Festival and share them with us.

“We’ll then include as many as we can in our free exhibition for this year’s visitors to enjoy.”

Adrian is particularly interested in behind-the-scenes and informal images, maybe a selfie with a favourite author, a street scene, a record of a dinner, ceilidh or walk, or a photo of a group of friends attending the event.

And he’s asking for up to 25 words for each picture to explain what's going on and why it’s memorable for you.

A selection of pictures will be used to create a showreel which will be projected onto a screen in a very unusual venue - The Iron & Pine Studio, created and donated by Iron & Pine.

The Dalbeattie company specialises in upcycling steel shipping containers and transforming them into luxury modular buildings of all kinds from holiday homes, residences and garden rooms to offices, bars, shops and event spaces.

In this case they are creating a chic, black-painted exhibition unit that will be taken to Wigtown on Tuesday, 19 September and located next to the County Buildings.

Luke Mazs, Co-founder of Iron and Pine, commented: “We see this as a fantastic opportunity to work with a team equally proud of their Dumfries and Galloway heritage.

“With the shared ambition of developing the rural economy in the south of Scotland, Iron and Pine are honoured and excited to be working with the Wigtown Book Festival to make this year’s event a resounding success.

“The Iron & Pine Studio will be presenting an exhibition that highlights the 25-year success of the festival and the collective voice of the community. We are so proud to be involved.”