London's Leading Communty Based Literature Festival

 

We Believe in the Power of Stories to Change Lives!

2023 Update – Festival Dates: 10-12 October 2023

We are returning to our model of a 10 day public festival in the autumn alongside one-off events throughout the year. Our Festival Hub will be in Central Wimbledon using theatre spaces at Wimbledon High School and Wimbledon. Events and projects for schools are delivered across the year.

2023 also sees the exciting news development of a new Merton Libraries Programme, funded by Arts Council England. As the lead delivery partner on this project for the library service we will be running author events, writing workshops and a Borough-wide Big Read. Watch this space!

2022 Activity

In 2022 we held two LIVE in-person summer festivals on Wimbledon Common - Sunrise in June and Sunset in September. Watch the Sunrise Highlights HERE

Author events for schools were included at the Festival - and are available to view HERE.

 

 

Our Values:

Wimbledon BookFest is committed to diversity and inclusion in the work it produces and the way it operates as an organisation. We promote a range of work and encourage black and ethnic minority authors in the work we do. We partner with a variety of partners to achieve this. As an organisation we continually work to ensure that the values we subscribe to run through the projects we run and the audiences we reach.

Our Work:

Wimbledon BookFest is a not for profit charity promoting arts, culture and education.

Our aim is develop the cultural offering for the locality through provision of:

• An annual public festival of author events based on Wimbledon Common

• Educational projects for schools & young people in Merton & South London (9 London Boroughs)

Pre-pandemic the public festival took place in early October in a 'pop up' festival site on Wimbledon Common with 100+ events running over the 10 day period. It attracts audiences of 20,000 per year.

Education:

The festival's education work is at the heart of its work and it is commited to creating and developing cultural opportunities for all, through its year-round programme with South London schools.
10,000 school children from more than 100 schools take part in projects every year.
The Word Up! education programme includes author events, writing workshops , competitions, volunteering, performance opportunities and film-making. More informaiton can be found HERE

The University of Roehampton is our key eduation partner and sponsor.

Funding & Finance:

Wimbledon BookFest is a community arts organisation and has a small team of core workers and volunteer input. The festival is funded by ticket sales, grants sponsors, gifts and donations. Our aim is to cover our costs year to year with any surplus raised put back into the festival's education work with local schools. It does not have large reserves.
The pandemic has reduced the organisation's income hugely with reduced ticket income and it is working to increase its income through supporter programmes for its future and sustainability.

If you can please do support us. We rely on sponsors, grants and our Friends to keep going. DONATE

Partners

Partnership are key to delivery and we work with national and international partners in the public, voluntary and commerical sector.
Our lead partner is Unversity of Roehampton. We also partner regularly with Merton Schools & Libraries, New Wimbledon Theatre, Polka Theatre, Tara Arts, Attic Theatre, Buchar Boulevard, Wimbledon Film Club, Merton Chamber of Commerce, Wimbledon International Music Festival and Merton Music Foundation.

We are members of the British Arts Festival Asssociation and Inclusive Minds (diversity in children's publishing).

Click here to find out more at The Wimbledon BookFest Team

Wimbledon BookFest was founded in 2006 by Fiona Razvi & Tony Kane whose ambition was to develop the arts and cultural offering across the community.
Registered chairty Wimbledon Arts 1120297