Support Us

Our aim is to promote a love of the written word, first by running an inspiring and entertaining Festival of Literature and secondly by using any profit to encourage the next generation to embrace that love of literature, through helping to fund and support educational projects in Wells and the surrounding area.

Our committee is run entirely by volunteers, and our funding comes solely from ticket sales, our Friends and the generosity of our sponsors. We owe our success to their invaluable support.

Become a Friend

The Wells Festival of Literature Friends scheme offers members the chance to become a Patron of the Arts and be more involved with all aspects of the Wells Festival of Literature. The scheme encourages our audiences to become actively engaged with what the Festival seeks to achieve, ensuring that we continue to provide a stimulating, entertaining and popular programme in the years ahead.

With the ongoing support of our Friends, we hope to increase our educational work, and so further extend the love of literature and learning among the young people of our county.

Benefits of Membership

• Priority booking: ticket sales for Friends will open a full week before general booking is available
• 10% Discount on Tickets
• Event invitation – to an exclusive ‘invitation only’ occasion.
• Brochure mailing: delivered hot off the press straight to your home!
• Friends will automatically be added to our mailing list to receive email updates from the Festival

Membership price hasn’t gone up since we started.

Membership Details

The Friends Membership runs from 5 November 2024 to 4 November 2025. You can pay your 2025 membership fee online using your credit or debit card details, or by postal form if you wish to pay by cheque, standing order or bank transfer (BACS):

By Invitation only

Every year the Committee of Wells Festival of Literature says ‘Thank You’ to the Friends, Sponsors and supporters of the Festival at a unique event featuring a special speaker. This traditionally happens in July when the Festival programme has been finalised but tickets are not yet available. A sneak preview!

In 2024 we were delighted to welcome Mike Gunton as the Guest Speaker. Mike is behind much of the award-winning natural history programming we all enjoy so much. He is a senior executive at the BBC Natural History Unit and has been its Creative Director since 2009.

Sir David Attenborough and Mike Gunton filming for The Green Planet on the River Avon in Hampshire in June 2019.
© Ella Morgan / BBC Studios Natural History Unit

Previous speakers have included Mariella Frostrup, John Major and Kate Adie, all of whom provided a unique addition to a most convivial and enjoyable event which was much appreciated.

Sponsors

Our sponsors are vital to the success of the Festival and we are enormously grateful for their contribution, large, small or medium!

We are always looking for businesses and individuals to help us continue to fund our ever-expanding programme of educational projects. There are many ways you can help – from sponsoring an event (or several) to providing a service or product for use during the Festival. There are several packages and opportunities available, and we are always open to new suggestions. Please remember – it is never too late to offer your support; our work with local schools and colleges continues throughout the year.

Thank you to Sponsors and Supporters of the 2024 Festival

Thanks to all for their generosity, with a special mention to Chubb Bulleid, our principal sponsor, who once again provided very generous support across the whole Festival. In addition, we are grateful to all the people who help out in so many ways, including Microbitz who lent us invaluable laptops for the smooth running of our Q&A sessions and to The Swan Hotel who hosted this year’s Literary Quiz.

Our 2024 Sponsors:

And a massive Thank you to all our volunteer helpers

Our Patrons: The Rt. Hon. Lord Waldegrave of North Hill and Lady Waldegrave

Festival Associates: James Coomarasamy, Sarah LeFanu, David Lister, Andrew Miller, Stephen Moss, Julia Samuel

Benefits include:

• Priority booking + 10% discount on 4 tickets to each event
• Complimentary tickets to the sponsored event
• Opportunity to purchase hospitality tickets
• An invitation to special events
• Publicity on marketing materials
• Event sponsors receive a signed copy of the book
  

To find out more about the rewards of Festival sponsorship, please email us on: admin@wellsfestivalofliterature.org.uk

Donations

If you are unable to sponsor an event at the Festival, you might prefer to make a one-off donation. We are very grateful that the support we have had over the past few difficult years has enabled us to maintain our work with local schools and colleges. Our hope for the future is to extend that help and increase our contribution to a wide range of invaluable educational projects. Any donations, however small, will help us achieve this. To find out more about our Education Projects click here. You can donate via PayPal (below).