2025 Festival

The Best Festival Ever

Record ticket sales made this year’s Festival the best ever in its 33 years, with capacity audiences and a wide range stimulating speakers.

Opening night speakers Sebastian Faulks and health guru Tim Spector both sold out in advance, making a great start to the Festival. Tickets were also snapped up throughout the week for numerous other popular speakers, among them gardener Carol Klein, cook Prue Leith and war correspondent Lyse Doucet.

The Festival’s final Saturday ended on a celebratory note with Austentatious improv comedian Rachel Parris marking the 250th anniversary of Regency novelist Jane Austen.

It’s thanks to all of you who bought tickets or supported us in other ways, that the Festival, a registered charity, continues to fund year-round literacy projects in local schools.
 
These include author visits and donations to school libraries, along with a special schools-only event for 1,000 children during the Festival. This year award-winning children’s author Sam Sedgman entertained Year 6 youngsters with weird and wonderful highlights from his own stories.

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