SWINDON FESTIVAL OF LITERATURE: FAR away from the traditional setting of the Arts Centre or Wyvern Theatre, the Swindon Festival of Literature headed outdoors over the Bank Holiday weekend.
Storyteller, author and fungus expert, Patrick Harding, took 40 people, many of them families, on a tour of Ravensroost Woods near Minety.
In the fine weather he told stories about the woods and the trees while walking along ancient tracks.
Many people combined it with Sunday night's campfire storytelling at Lower Shaw Farm, which attracted more than 100 people to hear tales from festival organiser Matt Holland and Steve Mynard.
Mr Holland explained that since all of the usual venues were closed on Bank Holiday Monday the festival had experimented with different ideas and found that outdoor events were what people wanted.
He said: "This is what people like to do with their weekend, we had more than 100 people at the campfire storytelling and they were transfixed. The whole festival is going beyond my expectations, events have sold out which I would never have expected and two authors have told me we are better than the Oxford festival."
Teacher Jennifer Hart, 41, travelled all the way from Weston-super-Mare for the story walk.
She said: "I'm originally from Swindon and I wanted to go to an event that I could take my family to.
"I was at last night's campfire storytelling and we're staying with friends so it makes a great bank holiday weekend to combine the two."
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