Books and Beards at the Pop-Up Festival of Stories

Last weekend I went along to Pop Up, a brand new festival of stories which took place in Coram's Fields in London on Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 July.

The festival was actually the grand finale to several weeks of events which had already taken place in venues across London, from the British Library to London Zoo. These events brought together children and young people from schools in Camden and Islington with a range of illustrators and authors, including Jamila Gavin, Malorie Blackman and Anthony Browne, who launched the schools programme as his final appearance as Children's Laureate.

Several of our Booktrust Best New Illustrators also joined in the fun, with Katie Cleminson, Claudia Boldt, Levi Pinfold and Salvatore Rubbino meeting primary school children from Islington schools. Some of the authors and illustrators have also been working with groups on story-making projects, as a way to excite and inspire children and their families in these areas about reading, writing and creating stories.

On Saturday 9 June, the festival was opened up to the public for a weekend of free events for children of all ages, ranging from appearances by popular characters such as Peter Rabbit, Spot, Rastamouse and the Moomins, to performances by poets including Francesca Beard and Charlie Dark. Illustrator Axel Scheffler was on hand to introduce his new characters Pip and Posy and authors including Michael Rosen, Philip Ardagh, Catherine Johnson and Geraldine McCaughrean took up the exciting challenge to 'curate' one of the festival spaces, inviting visitors to join them for a programme of events.

I was at the festival for a day of events relating to the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. Two of our judges from the 2010 prize, Bruce Ingman and Philip Ardagh, were on hand to provide laugh out loud performances and workshops. Bruce kicked off the day with two events exploring how he illustrates picture books such as The Magic Pencil, plus the chance for children to get drawing and invent their own funny characters; before Philip Ardagh took up the baton to delight the audience with tales of books, beards and much more. Philip's event concluded with what else but a beard-making workshop, in which children created a whole range of fabulously imaginative beards - sparkly, fluffy, glittery, flowing and fluorescent.

Meanwhile all kinds of other fun events were taking place across Coram's Fields, from storytelling to puppets; short film screenings to creating a giant pop-up picture book. Over 6,000 people came along to the festival over the course of the weekend, in what was undoubtedly a fantastic start to this fun, exciting festival, which puts a fresh spin on the usual book festival model. The Pop Up team are already hard at work on fundraising and planning for the next festival - and I for one can't wait to see what will happen when Pop Up pops up again next year.