Are literary festivals prepared for the future?

Lee Randall is a freelance Book Festival Programmer based in Scotland. In 2020, she wrote a report for Creative Scotland examining how Scottish literary festivals adapted to the pandemic to ensure their long term viability. 

She first became engaged in literary festivals as an arts and features journalist, allowing her to chair events and write book reviews. 

Randall believed literary festivals having no fixed size was one of their strengths. 

“You can do it very small scale. You don’t need music, you can do a literary festival on a budget. 

“And you bring something, you’re bringing a little circus to town.

“Or you can do a massive, giant, all bells and whistles literary festival that costs millions of pounds to produce and bring a different kind of show to town,” she said.

Given Randall's report specifically referred to Scottish literary festivals, she stressed the number of literary festivals within Scotland. 

“Our current First Minister has reading programmes and is herself a very outspoken fan of reading so books are very much to the forefront of the public imagination,” Randall added.

However, Randall questioned literary festival inclusivity: “I think if you go to many book festivals, not all, the audience tends to be older, they tend to be middle class to upper middle class, people with disposable income and free time.”

She stressed literary festivals needed to challenge this stereotype and ensure those who did not read particularly often felt included.

Randall was positive literary festivals could improve their accessibility through ticket sales, while also admiring the speed at which festivals moved online.

She said: “I think that most festivals were remarkably a joy and managed to pivot to digital really quickly.”

The importance of grants was apparent. Edinburgh International Book Festival receives money from Creative Scotland, while many English literary festivals depend on Arts Council England. 

Given the cost of festivals, Randall believed in multifaceted funding streams.

“Getting funding is a tricky thing. I think corporate and individual and other kinds of sponsorship are equally necessary plus ticket and book sales,” said Randall. 

Literary festivals depended on attendees visiting. Did Randall worry about declining disposable income nudging people away? 

“I think that for those people who already didn’t think book festivals were for them, they’ve got limited income, I suspect that they're going to be the hardest hit regardless. 

“I don’t blame anyone who says I’d rather buy a coat than a book. 

“I totally get that, I respect that; I think it’s a tragedy,” she said.

Randall felt the future of literary festivals would come from older generations bringing their children and grandchildren along, partially achieved through technology.

“There are authors who are saying ‘well, why fly around the world, burning up fossil fuels, when I can do this from home?’" she said.

“Now, there are huge disadvantages from everyone’s standpoint but there are also advantages.”

Clark thought culture journalism played a big part: “The role of features in newspapers became more important, bigger in the mix. 

“That led to an understanding of the industry as something that needed to have a more personal element.”

Literary festivals, Clark believed, had to include both bigger names that would pack out the crowds and newer writers visitors may never have heard of. 

“For the attendees, what you want them to feel is they may discover somebody that they haven’t heard of before," Clark said.

“You hope they’re going to get something extra as well as going to see a favourite writer or a performer."

Given Clark’s experience in literary festivals, she reiterated the importance of a good working relationship between any publisher and festival. Given a publisher often manages the publicity tour for a new book, both festivals and publishers had an interest in promoting the work. 

“If you ran a festival with very small events of quite niche authors, or writers that just don’t have a particularly high profile, it wouldn’t be financially sustainable," she said.

“If you ran a festival that was all the sort of tent fillers, you wouldn’t be doing very much for the literary ecology.”

When programming, Clark spoke about a festival’s audience. In particular, she said sometimes festivals were not the most ethnically diverse, with women more likely to attend.

Clark was positive about how festivals balanced pricing and accessibility. Nonetheless, relying on ticket sales alone was not an option. 

“I do think it’s really tough and I think funding streams are very difficult for festivals," she said.

“It does largely come down to sponsorship and public funding."

The logistical costs of festival management were apparent. From renting venues to energy prices, the work behind the scenes was significant. 

Despite online events improving accessibility for those unable to attend physical events, Clark was concerned about impacts on ticket sales for festivals.

“We definitely noticed, just after Covid, the first festivals and live events, there was a hit in ticket sales, because people were still, for lots of reasons, nervous, especially perhaps if you have an older demographic, about being in public spaces with a lot of other people," Clark said.

“You were delighted to be back and you were then faced - this is a story I heard over and over again across the board - with really diminished audiences.”

With audiences now returning, the greater cost can be transport, rather than the events. Clark believed literary discussions were at their best when they favoured conversation. 

“In terms of the conversation and the debate, I think that will endure because I think we’ve also become very aware of how atomised parts of society have become, how locked in echo chambers people have become, how difficult people find it to have a conversation or discourse via social media," she noted.

“The good thing about festivals is just the moment of listening to the author speak about their work or read from their work that is completely galvanising and electrifying.

“But you can’t just get it by something pre-prepared or premeditated, it’s the fact that you’re hoping for the unmediated moment, the live moment and I hope that will continue.”

Leith detailed how festivals were a great benefit to authors, given they spend most of their year writing alone, and were vital in the publishing ecosystem.

“I think almost every publisher does put their authors up for literary festivals and sort of slightly twist their arm to do them.

“I think it’s a mixture of being fun for authors and fun for publishers, it’s good networking.

“Publishers wouldn’t send their authors to do it if it wasn’t a means of increasing sales.”

Despite their impact, Leith’s editorial decisions at The Spectator are not framed by literary festivals.

“If something interesting happens at a literary festival, I might write about it but the pages I run at The Spectator are entirely led by the publication of books."

Leith argues it is not obligatory for literary festivals to address stereotypes of attendees, arguing it is framed by the festival. 

“It doesn’t seem a problem to me if people who happen to like attending literary festivals go to literary festivals," he said.

“I think literary festivals just put the books out there.

“They programme them according to their audience.”

He believed the variety of festivals, whether catering for traditional history or slam poetry, meant more people would attend.

“There will be festivals that I think cover all sorts of the demographics of people who read books,” he said.

Leith reflected on how Covid-19 restrictions invariably diminished the experience of literary festivals and cultural engagement. 

He added: “Either, you’re sitting with your computer screen absolutely tiled with hundreds of audience members sniffing and picking their nose and playing World of Warcraft or you’ve got simply you and the person you’re interviewing. 

“And it has all that difficult grammar of Zoom meetings without the sort of warmth and spontaneity you get from being in a room with an audience where you can hear them clap or laugh or express interest.”

Leith felt optimistic about the future of literary festivals, thanks to their volume. 

“Most literary festivals, because there are so many of them, lots of them are local to people so you’re not travelling miles and doing all the things that really start to push the costs up,” Leith added.

He argued the average cost of a literary festival ticket was not much more than a paperback book. Instead, the costs were in accommodation, particularly for remote festivals, though this would not end them altogether.

“Particularly if, and there’s probably some truth in it, the bread and butter audience for most mainstream literary festivals is at least relatively prosperous,” Leith said.

Literary festivals cannot ignore their star attractions: authors. The success of literary festivals depends so much on its guests. One prolific author who has seen their evolution is Louise Doughty. Author of nine novels, including Apple Tree Yard (2013), Doughty’s knowledge of literary festivals is vast. 

Her first memories were going as an audience attendee before being a published author. 

“I would go and watch published writers and I just thought they were Gods, because they were everything I wanted to be," she said.

“They’re one of the few places left where people are really discussing complex ideas at length,” Doughty added.

Doughty believed their growth came from book groups embracing grassroots engagement. She felt this held more importance than newspaper book reviews.

“I mean, the books pages are important and they’re great for quotes for the paperback but actually hardly anyone reads book reviews,” Doughty said.

Doughty highlighted how book readership expanded beyond literary festivals through social media, like TikTok, creating new readers. 

Doughty prefers smaller literary festivals as the audience attend one event at a time and authors enjoy their undivided attention.

“The problem with the big book festivals - Cheltenham, Hay or Edinburgh - they’re great fun to go to from the social point of view because you meet loads of other authors but quite often, there might be half a dozen events going on at the same time as yours,” she said.

She also saw festivals as an equaliser, not least for new authors gaining exposure. 

“Book festivals are such an important way to sell your work to people who have never heard of you.

“Even if you only sell half a dozen copies after a reading, if those half a dozen people tell their book group or tell friends, you’re gradually building word of mouth,” the author added.

Doughty highlighted author positioning in literary festivals was shaped by their books. Apple Tree Yard, which became a hugely successful TV series in 2017, pushed Doughty to huge success. 

“When you’re an unknown novelist, you get put on the graveyard shift, on a Sunday morning at 10am or a Tuesday afternoon at 3pm and it can be pretty bleak," she said.

“Whereas suddenly with the success of Apple Tree Yard, I’m being given the Pillar Room at Cheltenham at 2pm on a Saturday.

“It’s a prime slot, you’re selling out to 200/250 people.

“When you have a bestseller and you can pull a crowd of several hundred, it’s very satisfying.”

Doughty nonetheless recognised literary festival attendees were not the most diverse. Yet she felt online events became an equaliser for bringing people together, with hybrid events involving in-person and online audiences. 

Though in-person audiences were preferable for Doughty, she recognised online festivals provided equality for those from rural areas and with disabilities. 

Despite the cost of living crisis, Doughty was optimistic literary festivals will adapt.

“Books tend to fare better in a recession because they’re relatively cheap," Doughty said.

“It’s cheaper than going to see a film or certainly a lot cheaper than going to the theatre. 

“Books are often given as presents if people can’t afford a more expensive present.”

Their cheapness is economically damaging to authors, though Doughty thought the bigger costs were any cuts to the education budget. 

“When you get cuts to public services, what that affects are the feeder routes for both audiences and authors," she said.

“If funding for those gets cut, then I think that does have a very bad knock on effect for authors because all authors need a vibrant literary culture to survive.”

Doughty, however, celebrated novels remaining alive and relevant. 

“I think as long as people have an appetite for long form narrative, the novel and the culture around it, including festivals, will survive," Doughty added.

“There’s nothing I love more than talking to real readers and in fact when people say it’s exciting to meet a writer, I’m just as excited to meet a reader because they are increasingly projected to be a rare beast.”