About Us

Everything you want you know about the Ness Book Fest

In the early 2000s, not long after Inverness was elevated to ‘City’ status, a few individuals at MFR (Moray Firth Radio) and Eden Court began an early version of a Inverness Book Festival. These were very popular but, as ever, people retired or moved away, and the event slid into abeyance.

The inaugural NessBookFest (the current form) took place in November 2016 and by the following autumn in 2017, an extensive programme of performances by both local and visiting authors was successfully held. Our little Festival in Inverness was a growing and bustling event until Covid hit in 2020. As with many other events, we went online, and the Festival continued in a virtual form until 2022, when we returned to Live ‘in-person’ events.

NessBookFest is a Community Effort to bring a #NoBarriers book festival to Inverness and the Highlands. All of our events are completely free, and this is made possible by all our wonderful sponsors and volunteers. With a regular programme taking place throughout Inverness, there’s something for everyone; from crime & thriller to science fiction, academic and creative, workshops, readings & panels, illustrators and a full children’s programme brought to local schools. We’re keen to support and promote local creators. The Festival is designed to showcase the Inverness area as a creative centre, which produces a considerable amount of home-grown talent. We provide opportunities for local emerging authors to share a platform with well-established writers from further afield. Reflecting and celebrating the strong arts scene in Inverness and the Highlands, NessBookFest is of benefit to the whole community. The festival is normally held once a year for a few magical days in October.

As a matter of principle, our events are free to attend and held in accessible, central locations throughout the city, to encourage not only the regular book festival demographic to attend, but also to reach those who have never been to a book festival before. Our guest authors write in various genres for all age groups, collectively offering an appealing and diverse programme for audiences.

There’s so much you can do to help the NessBookFest team if you want to get on board. All of our committee members are volunteers and new applicants are always welcome to join. The Committee usually meet once per month (fortnightly during August and September as the festival approaches). Some of key skills we are looking for (but not a necessary requirement if you want to build experience) are:

Event Management
Digital Skills
Small organisation compliance
Sponsorship or fundraising
Communications
Presenting and Interviewing skills
Preferably a love of books and all things written!
Any other skills you can think of!

We also welcome people who don’t want to be part of the committee but just want to volunteer at the events.

There are other ways to support us, whether that’s collaborations with other organisations, sponsorship (see our Sponsorship page), hosting events or our guests (free or discounted accommodation is always welcome), gifts for raffles, making a donation or providing a service. If you’d like to donate your time, money or services, please don’t hesitate to get in touch via our ‘Contact Us” page

Current Committee

(Tim, Leila, Meilan and Gillian manning the doors at the Discovery Centre)

Current Chair / Secretary

Meilan Simanjuntak

Treasurer

Tim Williams

General Committee Members

Euan, Martin, Leila, Kirsty, Stuart, Emma, Elaina and Gillian.