‘Wonderful’ Bury St Edmunds Literature Festival welcomes audiences to packed three-day programme

A three-day event celebrating books and writing in this region was a success in Bury St Edmunds at the weekend.

Bury Literature Festival was held at the Unitarian Meeting House and Guildhall from Friday to Sunday, welcoming visitors to a packed programme of 15 talks and events featuring authors of many genres.

Julia Wakelam, who founded the festival in 2017, said: “It was a wonderful festival with several sold out or near sold out events. The atmosphere was so warm, the authors outstanding. As numerous members of the audiences told me, it really does get better every year.

“It was not only the audiences and the volunteers who enjoyed themselves, the authors did too. It is wonderful to see Bury really on the map for literary events.”

Kate Sawyer, programme curator, said in addition to the main schedule, the festival held two schools events with award-winning authors Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Tom de Freston, at Abbots Green Academy and King Edward VI School, in Bury, which were prizes for the year groups of the festival’s creative writing competition in the five-10 and 11-13 age groups.

In total, 900 guests were welcomed to festival events, plus a further 120 pupils and Abbots Green and 245 students at King Edwards.

Kate said: “It was a great event that went off without a hitch. Feedback from our audience and authors has been excellent.

“We are still a relatively small organisation but we are now a charity, a big step in our continuing plans for the festival's future and our ambitions to get everyone in this town reading.”

The seventh Bury Literature Festival will be held next year from October 9-12. Programme and advance ticket sale details will be revealed in the spring.