Aberdeen City Libraries receives national fund for book festival

Abdn Book Fest: Once upon a Silver City’ Project Will Involve Young People in Planning Plans to establish a new ...

September 22, 2026

Abdn Book Fest: Once upon a Silver City’ Project Will Involve Young People in Planning

Plans to establish a new children’s book festival in Aberdeen have advanced following Aberdeen City Libraries securing national funding. The library service is among thirteen local authority library services across Scotland that will share a total of £230,000. This funding is provided through the Public Library Improvement Fund, which is administered by the Scottish Library and Information Council on behalf of the Scottish Government.

The festival, named ‘Abdn Book Fest: Once upon a Silver City’, aims to support young people, library staff, and the wider community. It will co-create and develop a city-wide programme of author events, fostering engagement with literature across Aberdeen.

Young people participating in the project will be given opportunities to learn how to organise and run their own mini-festivals. They will also contribute to designing the branding for the larger festival. Their experience from these activities will inform, shape, and contribute to the delivery of a major festival scheduled for November 2027.

This initiative is set to be delivered in collaboration with various partners, including North East Scotland College. It builds upon the library service’s ongoing efforts to embed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and to enhance co-creation practices in the development of services for young people and families.

Eleanor Sheppard, Executive Director, Families and Communities, Aberdeen City Council, expressed enthusiasm for the funding. “This funding is fantastic news for our library service and will help create exciting new opportunities for young people to develop skills, confidence and creativity through books and storytelling,” Sheppard stated.

She added: “By involving young people from the start, the festival will reflect their ideas and voices while encouraging more families across the city to discover the joy of reading.”

The Public Library Improvement Fund supports creative, sustainable, and innovative projects that enable public libraries to respond to local priorities and changing community needs.