WoWFest announces top line-up for 2024 festival

Irvine Welsh, Beatrix Campbell, Jon Ronson and Luke Wright are among the line-up for this year’s WoWFEST.

They will be joined by names including Jah Wobble, Joelle Taylor, Paul Farley and Liverpool’s Peter Hooton at the annual May festival which this year has the title Fahrenheit 2024.

Liverpool’s longest-running radical writing festival takes place between May 1-31 at venues across the city including the Tung Auditorium, Philharmonic Hall, Bluecoat and British Music Experience.

And organisers Writing on the Wall say that in the grip of a climate emergency, and while wars rage, the festival is ‘an arena for ideas and a call for action’.

WowFEST 2024 draws inspiration from Ray Bradbury's 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, reflecting on the urgency of preserving knowledge and confronting censorship. Through writing, performance, and activism, the month-long festival aims to highlight the need for systemic change and the protection of our planet.

Journalist and author Jon Ronson will take part in a live online event at the Tung Auditorium, in the University of Liverpool’s Yoko Ono Lennon Centre, on May 3.

Meanwhile Irvine Walsh will be ‘in conversation’ with Pete Hooton at Philharmonic Hall on May 10, talking about 30 years of Trainspotting, and the Philharmonic Music Room will host An Evening with (former Scottish poet laureate) Jackie Kay on May 24 and The Night Alphabet author Joelle Taylor ‘in conversation’ with Roger Hill on May 30.

Author, poet and broadcaster Salena Godden is at the Bluecoat on May 11, with Andrew McMillan and Paul Farley at Waterstones on May 14 to talk about McMillan’s debut novel Pity, and poet Luke Wright brings his Silver Jubilee Tour to Leaf in Bold Street on May 22.

Jah Wobble presents Memoirs of a Geezer at the British Music Experience on May 25.

And Beatrix Campbell is ‘in conversation’ with Liz Kelly at The Women’s Organisation in St James Street on May 29.

More names and events are yet to be released.

Writing on the Wall co-directors Madeline Heneghan and Mike Morris said: “At Writing on the Wall social justice and collective action are at our core. Now, more than ever, it's time to stand up, mobilise, and utilise writing and creativity as tools for transformation.”

WoWFEST runs from May 1-31. More details HERE