14 - 16 May 2010

Have a look at the gallery to see highlights from this year's Festival

Download Word 10 Festival Review 

Word 10 proved a cause for celebration with sold-out events and record crowds to mark a decade of the Festival. The sun shone on Word 10 – the 10th festival, which took place from 14-16 May, 2010, in the heart of the University of Aberdeen’s medieval campus and at major arts venues throughout Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire. 

From small beginnings in 1999, with a handful of writers and a £1,000 grant from the Scottish Arts Council, in just one decade the Festival has grown into a world-class celebration of the written word, with support from Talisman Energy and Wood Group – Joint Title Sponsors in 2010, and one of the highlights of the Scottish cultural calendar. Attendance at the 2010 Festival was in excess of 11,000, with another year of record ticket sales for a packed weekend of readings, debates,music, exhibits, workshops and filmscreenings from more than 100 authors, poets, musicians, actors, artists, thinkers and media personalities.

The 2010 programme was ou rmost international yet, with Mayan poetry from Guatemala (translated into Scots), one of Poland’s leading novelists, memoires of Sierra Leone, and our annual event on Spanish writing. The international focus was juxtaposed against an equally strong Scottish line-up, including a tribute to the iconic north-east Doric storyteller Stanley Robertson, a series of Tartan Noir events, a debate on the state of the Scottish nation, a Gaelic book launch and children’s storytelling sessions in Gaelic and Doric. In addition, we had a wide array of well-kent faces among the mix including Simon King, Martin Bell, PaulineMcLynn, Benedict Allen, Karen Dunbar and Linda Marlowe.

The Marathon Oil Schools’ and Children’s Festivals were once again a roaring success, with 22 schools and hundreds of children and their families making the most of the sunshine and taking part in interactive science and writing events, hands-on creative workshops and listening to stories from some of our favourite authors.

Alan Spence,Word Artistic Director:

Appropriately for our tenth festival, this year’s event far surpassed every other year. The sheer energy of the Festival was amazing! From Scottish Opera to Guatemalan poetry, from Burns to Scott to student high jinks, fromKaren Dunbar’s DrunkWoman to a full-on celebration of Edwin Morgan, we had everything in a programme that left absolutely everyone smiling and looking forward to next year.

For the first time ever I cannot pick a stand-out event because there were so many highlights—everything was fantastic. The success of this year’s Word is fitting for our 10th anniversary and shows just how far this festival has come in the last decade.