The Bury St Edmunds Literature Festival returns for its eighth year on Thursday 8 October, running four days through to Sunday 11 October 2026. The full programme has not yet been revealed – that happens in June – but the festival’s trajectory since its 2017 founding, and a series of concrete announcements already made by organisers, give a clear picture of what is coming.
From Volunteer Committee to Registered Charity
The festival was established in 2017 by Susan Pocklington and Julia Wakelam, with support from local author Jackie Carreira and her husband AJ Deane. Its first edition spread events across churches, pubs, shops, and hotels in the town centre, with Louis de Bernieres, Sarah Perry, and Elly Griffiths among the opening-year line-up. In 2019, the festival found its permanent home in the Unitarian Meeting House, a handsome 17th-century building on Hatter Street that remains its principal venue.
The intervening years brought disruption. The 2020 edition was cancelled outright. In 2021 and 2022 the festival ran scaled-back, socially distanced programmes. But 2023 marked a decisive regrouping: the first panel events, an expanded children’s programme, and the arrival of Hannah Gold to a sold-out house. By 2024, the organisation had secured registered charity status (number 1209140), enabling it to pursue funding for schools outreach. Last year’s seventh edition was described by organisers as the biggest yet, and the numbers backed that up.
The 2025 Numbers
According to the festival’s own post-season report, the 2025 edition grew its audience by 30 per cent and sold 72.13 per cent of its total capacity. It engaged 1,130 local school-aged children through author visits to four schools and live events for every key stage. A total of 160 free tickets were distributed for under-18s at author events, plus three bursary places for creative writing workshops. The festival reached over 4,000 local audience members across its expanded programme, which for the first time included guided literary walks, film screenings at Abbeygate Cinema, and creative writing workshops in partnership with Gold Dust Writing Mentoring.
The 2025 line-up included Sarah Perry, Louis de Bernieres, Ferdia Lennon, Chris Whitaker, Jennifer Saint, and Louise Doughty. Kate Sawyer, a Bury-born novelist and the festival’s artistic director since 2023, curated the programme. Julia Wakelam, co-founder and now chair of trustees, conducted several of the onstage interviews.
What We Know About 2026
The eighth edition will again span four days, from Thursday 8 to Sunday 11 October. It is being positioned as the festival’s most ambitious yet, with a deliberate partnership with the National Literacy Trust’s Year of Reading under the banner “Go All In.”
A summer launch event featuring author Patrick Gale is scheduled for 29 June at The Apex – the award-winning concert venue on Charter Square that opened in 2012 and serves as the festival’s secondary performance space. That event is already sold out, but attendees will receive a 25 per cent discount on 2026 tickets. General booking opens on 3 July.
Priority booking is currently open to members of the festival’s Support Scheme, a tiered membership that provides early access to tickets and helps fund the festival’s outreach programme. The scheme operates alongside the charity’s broader funding model, which combines earned revenue, public funding, corporate sponsorship, and private philanthropy.
The festival has also launched its annual Creative Writing Competition, open to both adults and children. Every adult entry adds one book to a prize pot that will see 100 books donated to three local schools. Previous competition judges have included Jill Dawson, Ashley Hickson-Lovence, and Serena Patel.
The Venues
The festival’s footprint spans seven locations across Bury St Edmunds town centre. The Unitarian Meeting House on Hatter Street remains the primary venue for author events. The Apex, designed by Keith Williams Architects and noted for its acoustics, hosts larger sessions. Additional events are programmed at Waterstones Arc, Bury St Edmunds Library, the United Reformed Church, the Friends Meeting House, and Abbeygate Cinema. The variety is deliberate: it keeps the festival dispersed through the town, encouraging footfall in local cafés and shops between events.
Ticket Prices
Author event tickets are priced at £10 standard, £5 concession (for students in full-time education and those on benefits), and free for under-18s. Accompanying adults for children’s events pay £2.50, or nothing if they purchase a book. Bronze, Silver, and Gold discount schemes offer reduced rates for those attending multiple author events. A “+drink” ticket option allows pre-ordering a drink at a discount, while a “+book” option provides 10 per cent off the recommended retail price of a featured author’s book. Workshops, walks, and film screenings are priced separately to reflect external delivery costs.
Patrons and Honorary Patrons
The festival’s patronage structure reflects its growing standing. Mike and Judy Spenser-Morris have been founding patrons since 2017. The honorary patrons include crime novelist Nicola Upson, a Suffolk native whose Josephine Tey series has been shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger; Margaret Meyer, whose debut novel The Witching Tide draws on the 1645–7 East Anglian witch trials that took place in and around Bury St Edmunds; Jill Dawson, founder of Gold Dust Writing Mentoring; and Ashley Hickson-Lovence, whose novel Wild East won the East Anglian Book Awards 2024.
Bury St Edmunds’ Literary Lineage
The festival sits in a town with deep literary connections. Charles Dickens stayed at The Angel Hotel three times – first in 1835 as a journalist, then in 1859 and 1861 to give public readings. The hotel and the town feature in The Pickwick Papers: “Is this Bury St Edmunds?” asks Sam Weller, and Mr Pickwick replies, “It is.” Shakespeare dramatised the death of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, at the Abbey in Henry VI, Part II. Jane Taylor, who grew up in the town, wrote “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” in Bury St Edmunds. The crime writer Norah Lofts lived in the town and set several of her novels there. These are not abstract associations – the blue plaque at The Angel, the Abbey ruins in the Abbey Gardens, and the house at Old Vine where Lofts lived are all tangible, visitable places.
The festival does not merely occupy this heritage; it extends it. Each October, it turns a market town of 41,000 people into one of the most concentrated literary gathering points in East Anglia.
Key Dates
29 June 2026: Summer launch event with Patrick Gale at The Apex (sold out)
