The Festivals

Thousands of people enjoyed Paisley Book Festival 2025 – with events including enthralling sessions with top Scottish writers and poets to family fun activities and an entertaining schools programme.

Thanks to all who supported us. It was a fantastic festival – and we’re looking forward to doing it all again in 2026. We can’t wait to see you there!

The Pentlands Book Festival is an annual festival with talks by local authors held in local venues. It runs each autumn and coincides with Book Week Scotland and is organised by local people for the community in conjunction with Currie and Colinton Libraries.

Our mission is to entertain our audiences and nurture a love of reading and books in the local community. Since 2010, Penzance LitFest has delivered a diverse programme of events from music to mystery, humour to history, and poetry to performance art. Famous faces, new local writers, and our renowned writing workshops have all surprised and delighted our audiences.

Covering the widest range of literary genres, the Petworth Literary Festival welcomes some of the biggest names in fiction, politics and current affairs, the natural world, culture and lifestyle

The Phoenix is a weekly magazine for 7–14 year olds that’s packed with incredible comics, drawing guides, and plenty more that inspires kids to get reading, writing, and drawing!

Get ready for a weekend packed with comics, creativity and family fun. Meet the creators of kids’ top comics – including Jamie Smart from the #1 bestselling Bunny vs Monkey series – and enjoy interactive live shows, hands-on workshops and comic signings.

Play on Words celebrates everything to do with the spoken and written word. Join us for poetry & jazz, ghost stories, spoken word, creative walks, a sci-fi fantasy quiz night, comic creating, writer development and much, much more in New Milton, Lymington and across the Forest.

Portobello Book Festival was started by a group of local people who are interested in books and wanted to share their enthusiasm. It takes place each year over the first full weekend in October.

Our festival is based on the principle that everything is free and nobody is paid. That has been possible, partly, because of our fruitful collaboration with the local library, where many of the events are held. Events usually take place in various venues, and we try to make sure there is something for everyone.

Portsmouth BookFest 2026 returns from 16th February to 8th March, celebrating the power of stories and the joy of reading across the city. This year’s festival promises an exciting mix of author talks, workshops, performances, and community events. 

We'll be marking the centenary of Portsmouth born comedian Peter Sellers, celebrating 50 years of punk, and presenting a range of events from politics to sports heroes to events for children. Whether you're a lifelong book lover or a curious newcomer, BookFest offers something for everyone—uniting readers, writers, and thinkers in a vibrant celebration of books and ideas.

This year, we’re turning a page on history as part of Portsmouth 100, marking a century since Portsmouth became a city. And that’s not all – we are celebrating the National Year of Reading, Portsmouth’s own In Our Words festival and our beloved Central Library hits the big 5-0, so expect extra sparkle in the celebrations!

Get ready for puppet theatre, hands-on workshops, and the return of everyone’s favourite woodland friend – The Gruffalo!

Our female-led literary festival is for the curious and the open-minded. We are writers and readers, rebels and restless, feminists, thinkers and dreamers. Our empowered community is for people of all genders and backgrounds and people with both seen and unseen disabilities. Primadonna’s packed festival programme promotes inclusivity and our stellar line-up proudly demonstrates diversity.

Proms at St Jude’s is a world class festival of music and culture taking place each June in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London NW11.

We offer evening concerts with top national and international artists; lunchtime free of charge music recitals; a LitFest weekend with best-selling authors; an extensive programme of children and family oriented musical events and activities, a wide selection of Heritage Walks; a stand-up comedy night; a buzzing licensed refreshment marquee; and a LitFest café with delicious home-made cakes.

Push the Boat Out is an award-winning arts festival with a focus on poetry, which forms a unique and vital part of Scotland’s arts ecology. Fresh, vibrant and innovative, it strives to increase the diversity of poetry – in form, cross-artform pollination, voices platformed and who feels welcome as audiences and participants. Its mission is to bring artists, audiences and participants together to access, create, celebrate and make meaning through vibrant contemporary poetry and related artforms, both at an annual festival and via a year-round programme, with a strong community engagement element.

As one of only two poetry festivals in Scotland, we are inspired by the vibrancy of contemporary poetry, lyrics and spoken word from Scotland, the UK, and beyond. We aim to give poetry a new platform, creating an environment where all variations of this vital art form can grow, evolve and collide. We explore inventive ways to bring poetry and audiences together, challenging perceptions of what poetry is, how it can be enjoyed and who it is for.

Queen’s Park Book Festival is a vibrant and exciting celebration of literary arts in the heart of London. An area with deep literary history, Queen's Park has been a home to authors, artists, poets and actors for generations. Every year authors are welcomed by thousands of audience members for a weekend of events in the beautiful park.

We celebrate great writing and leading thinkers, sharing stories to as wide an audience as possible with a diverse programme designed to entertain, inspire, educate, challenge and amuse. Raworths Harrogate Literature Festival is recognised for championing up-and-coming talent along with attracting best-selling authors, politicians, historians, journalists, comedians and stars of the screen.

A nature‑themed celebration of writing, storytelling and the outdoors. It brings together writers, poets and thinkers who explore the natural world through words, with readings, discussions, workshops and guided walks that connect literature with the landscape around you.

There’s just something about animal lovers and books! Whether you’re into thrillers, romance, historical, non-fiction or children’s literature, there’s really something to satisfy the interests of every type of reader, as well as the opportunity for budding authors to get advice from incredible established names, and new authors who are just coming through.

Halesworth Bookshop are kindly joining us on site and of course, no event at Redwings would be complete without meeting some of our rescued residents.

A weekend of curated, eclectic arts events spread over three days in early July. Founded in 2017, we’ve come a long way since our first festival, building on our initial success by adding more artists, new events and new venues within our beautiful historic location. 

Be inspired: meet celebrated authors, discover new ones and engage in a full programme of morning and evening book events.

Be invigorated: explore the beautiful Northern Dales in autumn - enjoy daily walks for amblers, ramblers and serious walkers led by friendly guides, keen to share their knowledge and enthusiasm for the Dales.

We have a great selection of graded walks to choose from each day, you can embark on an ambitious climb one day and enjoy an historical stroll the next. Some of the talks may relate to the local area you're visiting and some may take you off in into completely different subjects.  There are also often more participatory events such as a Poetry Open Mic and Book Club discussions.

Our Festival is Rye’s principal annual arts event. It has developed over the past 54 years into one of the most successful and respected small festivals of its kind, dedicated to high quality performances in music, literature, theatre and other art forms, coupled with a range of activities in heritage and the environment.

The Scottish International Storytelling Festival explores Scotland’s northern identity, sharing tales, songs and myths from the world’s northern arc, which bridges Finland to Iceland and connects Germany to Norway, with Scotland in between.

Over 11 days, some of the North’s most celebrated storytellers will join leading voices from Scotland to bring a feast of world-class storytelling, music, workshops, and shared experiences to Edinburgh and venues across Scotland.