A growing appetite

Amid all the recent tumult in the world of book festivals, there are some encouraging signs that audiences are growing again—and are more diverse than ever before. While it may be tempting fate to say we’ve turned the page on the pandemic, especially given the debates around funding which have split the sector since—not to mention the ominous warnings about declining literacy rates—festivals and live literature events have once again demonstrated that they have the potential to draw substantial and diverse audiences to the world of books. 

From the promising footfall figures at Hay Festival this year (up 6% on the previous year) to Bradford Literature Festival welcoming a record audience of over 155,900 (an incredible 89% of whom attended for free), audiences are flocking to established festivals in greater numbers than ever. Then there’s the emergence of festivals including the Black British Book Festival (which we hosted last year at the Southbank Centre), SE London BookFest and the #Merky Books Literature Festival, reflecting how innovative festival makers are shaking up the scene and finding fresh ways to reach new audiences. 

The Poets’ Revival drew a diverse spoken word audience to the Royal Albert Hall this spring, and the Roundhouse’s The Last Word Festival culminated in an electric Poetry Slam Final—not just because of the verbal fireworks on stage, but because of the vibrant audience it attracted. For all of the challenges the sector faces, headline figures and packed events like these point to sound fundamentals in the audience experience and a growing appetite for more. 

As the London Literature Festival approaches here at the Southbank Centre, we’re seeing strong turnouts across the board. But demand isn’t only high for the usual suspects like Gillian Anderson, Keanu Reeves and Sally Rooney; less well-known authors and more playful formats are seeing strong ticket sales too. From our discursive panel events in celebration of James Baldwin’s centenary (in partnership with Words of Colour) and our showcase of London debuts (featuring Kaliane Bradley, Hannah Regel, Tom Lamont and Varaidzo Event), to our staged performance of Kevin Barry’s new novel, A Heart in Winter (to which we’ve just added a second performance due to high demand), we’re seeing an incredibly positive response to programming that is, frankly, riskier. 

This is encouraging us to reach out to more communities who may well have never considered approaching our door. This year we’re collaborating with British rap icon Ghetts, one of the most revered figures in the UK Grime scene. He has co-curated a series of events running through the opening weekend of the festival, from a full-scale Royal Festival Hall gig to a night of music and spoken word featuring Yomi Ṣode and Belinda Zhawi, and our figures show that it’s paying off—the latter has already sold out the Queen Elizabeth Hall. This year, representation of global-majority authors and artists across our literature programme reflects (and even slightly exceeds) the demographics of the city itself (which is 46% global-majority, compared to our programme which this year is 50%). 

While profound and systemic challenges continue to face us, our current audience data suggests that book events—especially when inclusive and imaginative—have the potential to be bigger and brighter than ever.

I think part of the reason for the success of the collaboration comes from the fact that this kind of cross-arts approach to book events reflects the way that many young people engage with culture: not through art-form silos, but through a fluid and dynamic confluence of different artistic styles and forms. When we announced Ghetts as the co-curator with an acappella performance of his hit track "Double Standards", the video broke our previous records on Instagram and TikTok (currently it has been viewed over 2 million times across the two platforms). While poetic precision is right at the core of Ghetts’ artistic sensibility, even many of his existing fans might not immediately view his songs and lyrics as literature with a capital "L".  But to my mind, they are verbally dexterous and finely distilled chronicles of contemporary culture. By carving out a central role in the festival for such an artist, we’re aiming to broaden out the discussion about what and who literature includes, and by extension draw more people, who may before have felt excluded, into that conversation.

We are of course contending with a panoply of issues big and small, from a well-publicised leak in the Royal Festival Hall roof to declining Arts Council funding. These downward financial pressures mean we’re at risk of becoming overly reliant on big names to plug the gap (or fix the leak, if you will), and while there are happy alignments between these large scale events and our underlying objectives (think RuPaul packing out the Royal Festival Hall), we have to play a continual balancing act to avoid being overly top heavy or prohibitively priced. 

We have a responsibility to support emerging talent throughout the year, not just during London Literature Festival, and while we have strong partnerships with a range of independent publishers, including Canongate, Faber and Fitzcarraldo, I’m acutely aware of the many small presses and publishers who might struggle to present an author in one of our auditorium spaces. We need to do more to reflect the creativity and commitment of these independents, who are such a vital part of the publishing ecosystem, so we’re looking at ways of making them more visible in our programming in the year ahead. 

Ultimately, though, we want to sound a note of real positivity. The Southbank Centre has been hosting literary events for more than 70 years, and while profound and systemic challenges continue to face us, our current audience data suggests that book events—especially when inclusive and imaginative—have the potential to be bigger and brighter than ever. After the year we’ve weathered in the book festival world, it’s a reassuring thought that the simple act of congregating in a physical space to hear from writers we love, away from the siren songs of social media, is something more—and more varied—people are going out of their way to show up for.