In this packed Launch for 2025's festival, you can find out what's in store as Joint Festival Director Sam Hall will give the rundown on all the amazing events and writers coming to Medway this year! Council leader Vince Maple will give a speech, followed by the Award Ceremony for this year's Medway Youth Laureates.

Then we'll hear Festival Joint Patron Theresa Lola give a reading of her poetry; Theresa Lola is a British Nigerian poet and artist. She is the author of two poetry collections. Her second poetry collection 'Ceremony for the Nameless' was praised in the Guardian as a book that “assures her place as a trailblazer for a new wave of poets”. 

Our final speaker, is Chris de Coulon Berthoud (a musician, artist, historian, and writer), who will introduce the 'Kalomera' project - a project to republish a rare work of utopian fiction, detailing an optimistic vision…