Wimbledon BookFest reaches biggest audience since London festival was founded

Wimbledon BookFest saw footfall grow 16% year-on-year, reaching the biggest audience since the festival was founded 17 years ago – despite having lost its “second biggest funder” earlier this year. 

More than 15,000 people attended 70 events over 10 days, with audience members including 3,500 school children from 32 south London schools.

The festival’s bookseller Waterstones reported a 92% increase in growth in book sales at the series of events which concluded on Sunday 27th October and took place at Merton Arts Space at Wimbledon Library.

Fiona Razvi, festival founder and director, said: “In what has been an incredibly challenging year for book festivals with the withdrawal of key sponsorship, it is so encouraging to see the audience appetite only growing for the collective sharing of stories. This year we saw a shift in audience attendance with almost half of our audience being first-time visitors.” 

Razvi added: “Now in our second year, working with Merton libraries and the Lahore Literary Festival, we are seeing a shift in the demographic of our audiences, which is key to being a festival that serves its community.” 

Wimbledon BookFest was among the festivals that had funding from Baillie Gifford withdrawn earlier this year after a campaign by Fossil Free Books drew attention to the Scottish investment management firm’s sponsorship of a slew of UK festivals, including Hay and Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Razvi previously told The Bookseller that Baillie Gifford was Wimbledon BookFest’s “second biggest funder”. 

Speaking about the success of this month’s festival, she added: “Book festivals, like most arts sector models, need sponsors and philanthropy to work, and we are actively seeking sponsorship from companies who see the value of literature and stories in our cultural lives. Our Education Programme was a real highlight this year and we are delighted that the University of Roehampton continues to support our work, including our schools programme, so that we can develop our vital, life-enhancing work with children and young people.”

This year’s highlights included a series of author events headlined by Tim Peake, Joseph Coelho, Jeffrey Boakye and US Marvel and YA author Samira Ahmed; and the annual Young Writers Competition which saw entries from 5,100 students from 51 south London primary and secondary schools.