Nine of the UK’s leading book festivals previously sponsored by Baillie Gifford have collaborated to explore how to survive in an increasingly pressurised environment. They have also joined the British Arts Festivals Association (BAFA).
The alliance – which includes Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) and the Chelmsford Literary Festival, among others – has joined BAFA with support from Canongate, which announced backing for the festival organisers last summer after a high-profile controversy with longtime sponsor Baillie Gifford led to major funding gaps for the nine festivals.
Organisers of the alliance said: “In light of the common funding challenges that arts organisations face and an ever-evolving media landscape, the EIBF has united with eight of its peers to create a new platform for discussion and collaboration. This move to help future-proof literary festivals across the country is made possible courtesy of a generous donation from award-winning, independent publishers Canongate, which will support the festivals’ membership fee.”
New recruits to BAFA include the EIBF, Borders Book Festival, Cambridge Literary Festival, Hay Festival, Henley Literary Festival, Wigtown Book Festival and Wimbledon BookFest. Cheltenham and Stratford Festivals were both previously members.
Jenny Niven, director of EIBF, told The Bookseller: “We’ve been looking at our funding model and how to make festivals sustainable in the longer term and what we need to do in terms of strengthening our own approach to things, looking at our policies, looking at our resilience. This unites all the festivals – how do you make the model work in a combined time of cost-of-living pressure, reduced public funding and pressure on corporate and philanthropic support.
“Are there ways from working more collaboratively and more collectively, are there are new approaches to any of these challenges? So on that front, one of the upsides of last summer – that there has forged a more collaborative working agreement between these group of festivals. The BAFA membership is a clever way of bolstering our individual impact by working together, I feel positive about it and that there’s a lot of opportunity there.”
BAFA, which has other book festivals as members, offers vital support to UK arts festivals at all levels, from volunteer-run organisations to some of the most iconic names in the UK arts calendar including BBC Proms, Cheltenham Jazz Festival, London Soundtrack Festival and many more.
Membership of BAFA will not only offer a shared forum for festivals to liaise and co-ordinate mutual support, it will also bolster their lobbying power and offer each festival access to additional resources and academic links, as well as discounted services that prove invaluable in the running of large-scale arts events. “Ultimately, this new common membership of BAFA will enable a stronger collective voice for communicating the value and benefit of book festivals,” alliance organisers said.
“Despite their significant profile in the wider festivals landscape, this will mark the first time that book festivals have engaged in such a UK-wide collaboration. It is hoped that BAFA will build on the work already achieved by Scottish book festivals via the Scottish Book Festivals Network, collaborating on a national scale and thus reaching a wider audience.”
BAFA offers networking, training, advocacy and support and will use its Festivals Forward research, commissioned by BOP Consulting in 2024, to make the case for the sector’s unique contribution not only to the UK’s cultural life but to its audiences and communities.
Annie Ashworth, director of Stratford Literary Festival, said: “Book festivals are a vital part of the UK’s cultural landscape and by more of us linking with each other under its umbrella, we can share our challenges, best practice and ideas and offer even more value to audiences, authors and publishers.”
Fiona Goh, director of BAFA, said: “BAFA is delighted to welcome these acclaimed and diverse literary festivals to our membership, joining other arts festivals from across the UK, including the BBC Proms, Harrogate International Festivals and Cheltenham Festivals. We’re looking forward to working together to support book festivals to develop and flourish and to champion the extraordinary work of these events in enriching the lives of communities across the UK.”
