The Ray Bradbury centenary/centennial year continues with various events taking place online instead of in the real world. Of course, we've lost some big events such as Comic-Con San Diego, which was due to celebrate Bradbury 100, but some previously localised events will now be accessible globally, such as...
Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine Arts & Music Festival - this event usually takes place in Ray's home town of Waukegan, in the city's Bowen Park. This year, it is going online. One of its centrepiece events will be a non-stop reading of the novel
Dandelion Wine, starting at 10am CDT and projected to run through to 8pm CDT.
We are promised "celebrity Bradbury fans reading from around the galaxy". I'm not sure who else is in the cast list, but one of the readers will be me, so the event certainly has an intercontinental reach... I'm due to read the section of
Dandelion Wine which ws originally published as the short story "The Night" (1946).
The
Dandelion Wine reading will be streamed live on Facebook. If you'd like to dip in, you'll find further information here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1124476531218342/
When I read through the story this morning to refresh my memory, I was reminded that this story refers to a number of streets and landmarks in "Green Town", the fictionalised version of Waukegan where
Dandelion Wine is set. I blogged about the parallels between the fictional and real town some years ago, here:
http://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2006/10/green-town-illinois.html
And "The Night" also plays on the town's fear of murderous criminal "the Lonely One". Although fictionalised by Bradbury, there really
was a "Lonely One" in Waukegan. I researched him a few years ago, and exclusively revealed his true story here:
https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2009/09/revealed-lonely-one.html
I hope you will be able to join us for the reading.
