New venues found for literary festival after fire at Stratford hotel

STRATFORD’S community has rallied round to provide new locations for the town’s literary festival after a fire at the original venue, the Crowne Plaza hotel.

The festival was due to start at the Crowne Plaza tomorrow (Wednesday) but the hotel is closed because of Monday night’s fire.

As reported by the Herald this morning (Tuesday), Stratford Literary Festival director Annie Ashworth said she was determined that the events would go ahead.

This evening she announced new venues had been found, with many of the events now taking place at the Welcombe Hotel and Stratford Play House in Rother Street. Other venues include the RSC and Holy Trinity Church.

In a note to festival-goers, organisers said: “As you may have heard, there was a fire last night at the Crowne Plaza hotel. No one was hurt thankfully, but the venue is not useable.

“We have been working hard today to resolve this situation and all the events have now been relocated.”

The statement added: “We are determined the festival will go ahead as normally as possible. Thank you for your understanding.”

The festival, which has around 70 events, includes big names such as: classicist Mary Beard, queen of crime fiction Val McDermid, bestselling author David Nicholls, and children’s favourite Michael Rosen.

Actors David Troughton and Juliet Stevenson are also on the bill, as is the new co-artistic director of the RSC, Tamara Harvey, comedian Alistair McGowan and Patrick Grant, a judge on the popular Great British Sewing Bee television show.

To find out what’s happening and where, click here.