Kendal, 12th January, 2015: Booking for spaces in Kendal’s Comics Clock Tower venue for this year’s Lakes International Comic Art Festival (16th – 18th October 2015) has just opened.
A huge line up of both British and globe-spanning international comics talent is being lined up for this year’s Festival, and events in the Clock Tower will form a major part of the celebrations.
The Clock Tower is an area akin to a traditional comics marketplace and artists’ alley at other comics events… However, as is the Lakes International Comic Art Festival way, it is quite a unique style of marketplace!
The building itself is a lovely old Town Hall and is quirky, not the typical sort of space you might be used to for these kinds of events, but it helps create a really interesting and unique atmosphere.
The Lakes International Comic Art Festival occupies the whole building for the weekend, spread across a number of rooms: one large main hall and several smaller rooms, offering space to a maximum of about 70 exhibitors.
Comic creators, publishers and retailers interested in booking tables are advised to make their enquiries as soon as possible, as the venue was quickly booked up in 2014, which saw some 3000 visitors through the Clock Tower doors. These included many families and young people.
“The wider festival programme – the ticketed events programme, exhibitions and family zone activities etc – goes hand in hand with the Comics Clock Tower,” explains Festival Director Julie Tait, “which provides an exciting and welcoming environment for people to discover new creators and learn more about particular genres, as well as of course, an opportunity to catch up with their well-established favourites.
“This does unfortunately mean that we are unable to guarantee a space in the CCT through application alone; space won’t be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. Instead, in order to make the best use of the limited space available, we will carefully curate the Clock Tower to accommodate a balanced representation of independent creators, artists, retailers and publishers etc. It is absolutely our priority to ensure that the Clock Tower properly reflects the brilliance and diversity of comic art and we will make sure that it offers the most interesting, high quality experience for exhibitors and audiences alike, as well as complimenting the wider festival programme.
“We had a really interesting mix of people through the doors last year,” she says, “from industry professionals, comics’ aficionados and festival-goers, to local town folk who had very little knowledge of comic art, or hadn’t read a comic since they were in their teens! The locals were incredibly keen to dip a toe (back) in the water and see what was going on which made for a diverse and vibrant experience.”