DBF23 Festival Hub at The Printworks

 

Across the five days of DBF23 we worked with so many wonderful venues around Dublin City, with the heart of the festival at our Festival Hub in The Printworks, Dublin Castle.

Kicking off with the Publishing Ireland Annual Irish Publishers Conference Trade Day on the Friday and wrapping up with From Stem Cells to Stars: Poetry and Physics on the Sunday afternoon, we had a jam-packed three days of events at our Festival Hub, for both adults and children, including author panel discussions and in-conversations, poetry and prose readings, the Irish Writers Centre Takin’ the Mic open mic night, our Science Week Events, Prose and Pose Yoga, walking tours, book and literary journal launches, celebration events, our Meet the Publishers event, children’s readings, draw-alongs and even a dance performance, and not forgetting all the drop-in activities to keep families busy across the weekend!

 

Photo: Ger Holland

We were delighted to once again be part of the Winter in Dublin campaign, supported by Fáilte Ireland, and we had everything from lively evening literary events to the meeting point for walking tours heading off all around the city at our Festival Hub, celebrating Dublin as a vibrant cultural place to be this winter. The main foyer area of The Printworks served as our Winter Garden, with Marta from The Gutter Bookshop facilitating all your book-buying needs (complete with a special appearance by Bob!). We also had a cafe here, and a relaxation and games area for families and kids, with the tables and pink chairs, and bright comfy beanbags, all brought to you by the lovely folks at Outdoor Living.ie and Beanbags.ie, who also supported us last year for our Winter Garden fit-out. We saw so many little (and big) hands making great work in our arts and crafts area, and many families took off around the grounds of Dublin Castle on our family treasure hunt. 

 

Photo: Ger Holland

We had a new partnership this year for the stage set in our two event rooms and truth be told we could not get enough of these beautiful furniture and interiors pieces! As not only design experts but also bibliophiles, the team at Oriana B went above and beyond to bring their reading nook expertise to dress our two stages with not only comfy couches and seats for our authors and speakers but also a complete set of design accessories and furniture to complement the seating. Check out the special webpage they put together for us filled with dream Reading Nook Essentials.

Photo: Ger Holland

 

The fun wasn’t all contained to inside The Printworks though. We know many of you got to attend our events for both adults and children out in our beautiful tent brought to you through another new partnership this year with Bohemia Canvas. How fitting to have several of our Science Week nature, climate and environment themed events in here against this stunning nature-themed backdrop!

Photo: Anastasia Buchholz

 

Head over to our Instagram or Facebook to see more moments from #DBF23 captured, and we are delighted to announce we have also now added a new gallery tab to our website.

The festival could not have happened without the invaluable support of The Arts Council and we are continually grateful. Thank you also to Dublin City Council, Fáilte Ireland who supported us through the Winter in Dublin campaign, Science Foundation Ireland who supported us through Science Week, Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, Dublin Castle and the OPW, RTE who supported us through RTE Supporting the Arts, the ICLA and the DMG Group.

Thank you all of you who came and joined us at DBF23 and we hope to meet you back there again next year.

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