A year in the planning, the inaugural Translation! Festival hit Exeter on Friday 29th September across a variety of city centre venues and-appropriately enough-on the International Day of Translation.
With events ranging from professional workshops through talks, film showings, language games, talks and poetry translation duels as well as musical performances and specially created artworks, there truly was something for just about anyone with an interest in languages.
“a wonderful way for the University to give back to the city”.
Prime mover behind the Festival was Professor Michelle Bolduc, who took over direction of Exeter University’s Translation Department last year. She was pleased to pronounce the event “a terrific success. We’ve seen many age groups participating and having the opportunity to experience how exciting translation and languages can be. This is a wonderful way for the University to give back to the city.” This sentiment was echoed by Hannah Richardson, who graduated from the MA Translation programme this year, and who has been hard at work since January on making the festival a success. She said, “it’s very rewarding to see all the planning finally come to fruition.”
I concur. I arrived at the festival in the morning, a slightly overwhelmed MA Translation Studies student; I left a still slightly overwhelmed MA student, but one freshly enthused by the breadth and possibilities of my chosen field of study. Over the course of the day I was in turn stimulated, engaged, amused, inspired and even moved by what I encountered, and hope this will go on to be an annual addition to Exeter’s cultural calendar.