Thank you to everyone who attended this September’s festival. We had the most wonderful time and we hope you did, as well.
Close to 8,500 tickets were sold across the week, with packed audiences turning out for talks spanning fiction, history, politics, memoir, nature and the arts. Household names including Bryony Gordon, Caroline Quentin, Rachael Stirling, Paul Mason and Damien Lewis drew audiences from across East Devon and beyond – and the buzz in our beautiful town was something very special indeed.
Our amazing authors travelled from far and wide, with Charlotte Higgins, who has recently been longlisted for the prestigious Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, travelling directly from Ukraine to be with us.
Our Children’s Champion Maz Evans curated a brilliant family weekend with Rob Biddulph, Karl Nova, Louie Stowell, Ramzee and Sophy Henn – alongside free bear-themed activities celebrating 100 years of Winnie-the-Pooh. Thanks to our outreach programme, poet Matt Goodfellow held two sessions at Exmouth Community College, attended by more than 700 young people – from both the college and 12 local primary schools.
The Writers’ Hub with Word Kitchen sold out entirely. And four talks were interpreted with British Sign Language, making the festival more accessible than ever. We also gave back to our community in new ways this year – with the book quiz and The Take 4 Jazz Band concert raising funds for Exmouth Foodbank, and Dominic Gregory’s talk raising money for the RNLI and Coastguard Rescue Team.
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