The Power of Golden Hour!

 

Ryan Van Winkle is the distinctively moustached, talented and charismatic (qualities he shares, of course, with all who have written, as he once did, for the Skinny’s book section) regular host of the Golden Hour literary and musical evenings . Except the moustache part... “We just finished a massively fun tour of England,” he says, “hitting up Sheffield, Brighton, Bristol, London and Newcastle. Brilliant shows with loads of guest stars and, perhaps, a taste of what fun we'll be having in the Speigeltent. Drinking and dancing and stories and poems – what more could you want from 9 - 11pm on a Festival Wednesday?”

He’s right: it's a great event. And the reason? “Golden Hour is not just multi-author - it is multi-platform. And so you have music and cartoons and jokes as well as top quality writers reading their work.” To that end it’s been confirmed that top musical acts Withered Hand, Jed Milroy, Hailey Beavis and the thoroughly excellent The Black Diamond Express will be there – the writers reading will have to be a surprise for now, as Ryan plans to trawl the festival for prospective acts.

Ryan has excellent memories of last year’s festival, when “I particularly enjoyed my conversation with David Simon about the pizza in my native New Haven, CT”! But this year it’s his job to create treasured memories at his event. How? “To my knowledge” he says “The Golden Hour is the only literary event that regularly ends with lots of dancing and a few cheap, red wine soaked snogs”. Good. Join the party! [Graham C Paterson]