Bath Children’s Literature Festival – Somerset
With more than 130 events held over 10 days in various venues around the delightful city of Bath, the Bath Children’s Literature Festival is aimed at everyone who loves children’s books, from the readers to editors, publishers, teachers, authors, librarians and booksellers.
Bath Film Festival – Somerset
An exciting treat for film lovers. The Bath Film Festival is held over 10 days, although events and special screenings continue on occasions throughout the year. The festival run itself is packed with screenings and events of all sorts, but it is particularly renowned for its F-Rated films.
Bath Festival – Somerset
With a history spanning more than 20 years, the Bath Literature Festival has hosted Nobel and Booker Prize winners such as Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, Kazuo Ishiguro, Hilary Mantel and Howard Jacobson; leading political thinkers from Tony Benn and Tariq Ali to Anna Politkovskaya and Eric Hobsbawm; poets ranging from poets laureate Ted Hughes, Andrew Motion and Carol Ann Duffy to Wendy Cope and Simon Armitage; and humourists from Garrison Keillor and Terry Pratchett to Steve Bell. Events take place throughout the city over a period of 10 days.
Bradford-on-Avon Mini Book Festival – Wiltshire
A free festival promoting books and writing for young people and children, that is based in Bradford-on-Avon Library, Wiltshire. There will be a programme of activities for children aged 4 and upwards, under the auspices of a group of local children’s authors.
Bristol Film Festival – Bristol
The youngest event on the city’s cultural calendar, having kicked off with a bang in 2016. An eclectic and exciting mix of film and related events is held at various places around the city.
Chalke Valley History Festival – Wiltshire
A celebration of the past, the Chalke Valley History Festival – held in the fields of Wiltshire near the village of Ebbesbourne Wake – combines written and living history in a unique blend. The week-long festival includes a historic air show, live historic re-enactments and displays, talks, discussions and debates, besides all the jolly trappings one expects at a well-established, popular festival event.
Cheltenham Literature Festival – Gloucestershire
One of the oldest and best-loved literature festivals in the world, this event draws tens of thousands over its 10-day run. The packed programme includes lectures, poetry readings, children’s events, interviews, storytelling, book groups, writing workshops, education projects, and live literature.
Encounters – Bristol
The UK’s leading short film and animation festival, aimed at discovering, supporting and developing new talent, providing a platform for emerging and established filmmakers and serving as a unique meeting place for the industry. The festival covers two main venues – the Watershed and Arnolfini on Bristol’s harbourside, with weekend events at the Cube Microplex cinema.
Slapstick Festival – Bristol
To keep silent, visual and classic onscreen comedy alive for future generations, through raising awareness, interest and appreciation of this unique art form, developing new audiences for archive cinema, and supporting the sustainability and development of silent film organisations, through screening well-known, rare and unique archive cinema to the film going public.
Swindon Festival of Literature – Wiltshire
Founded on the notion that “life is for learning” this celebration of the spoken and written word is spread across two weeks at various venues in Swindon. The packed programme – that opens each year at sunrise on a high ridge in Lawn Woods – draws an eclectic mix of writers, poets, storytellers and others, including a large phalanx of readers.
Frome Festival – Somerset
This summer extravaganza taking place over two weeks in the pretty Somerset town of Frome covers the whole gamut of the arts, from opera to ghost stories, fine art to hidden gardens. There is, however, a generous literary component, including workshops, readings, and story walks. Designed to showcase local talent, the Frome Festival delights all the senses and comes as a revelation for most visitors.
Salisbury International Arts Festival – Wiltshire
Since it was first held in the summer of 1973 more than a million people have flocked to this festival to experience remarkable performances of drama, dance, film and music of all sorts, together with literary and visual arts events.
Ilminster Literary Festival – Somerset
The Ilminster Literary Festival was set up to offer the local people of all ages in Ilminster and the surrounding areas an exciting and enjoyable opportunity to meet a variety of authors, editors, and scriptwriters through discussion, talks and meetings, all at affordable prices.
Marlborough Literature Festival – Wiltshire
The Marlborough Literature Festival brings together some of the UK’s finest writers to celebrate literature in all its forms in this historic market town. With fine writing at its heart, the programme includes some of the UK’s best-known writers as well as new and emerging talent. The programme embraces adult and children’s fiction, non-fiction, biography, journalism and poetry.
Mere Literary Festival – Wiltshire
It may be a small town, but Mere in Wiltshire is big on books! Every year the residents organise a literary festival in aid of local charity. The event caters of a wide range of bibliophiles from children to poetry lovers.
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