Cheltenham Lit. Fest. Success
Last updated: 13/10/2006 - 16:30
Cheltenham festival of literature - supported by The Times and run by the local Borough Council - has announced another 'record breaking year'.
The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival has enjoyed a record-breaking year with over 77,000 attendances - 10% up on last year. The ten-day festival, sponsored by The Times, saw over 350 events involving some 460 leading authors, and more than lived up to its reputation as 'the most distinguished and diverse of literary carnivals' - The Independent.
Among the big names at this year's Festival, the biggest selling event was Gordon Brown - with around 2.000 people lining up to hear the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Over stars to leave literary lovers in awe were former Boomtown Rat Bob Geldof, actress Julie Walters and BBCTVs Jeremy Paxman. In fact, around a third of the programme completely sold out. Many burning topics were discussed including the existence of God, the responsibility of the British media and the meaning behind British identity.
2006 saw a host of Festival firsts with the debut of our Family Fun Day attracting around 2,000 people. The day included juggling, drawing, poetry, bouncy castles and everyone's favourite characters from children's books. This was a huge success and a firm favourite for furute festivals.A new relationship with the Royal Shakespeare Company saw a series of sell-out events with some of Stratford's biggest names treading the Cheltenham boards. With everything from Much Ado to Hamlet sampled along the way - this was an exciting debut for the RSC in Cheltenham and one we hope to continue in future.
As ever, the children's festival 'Book it!' was a huge success as was the festival fringe Voices Off. Add to these the extensive education programme running alongside the Festival - and it truly was a festival with something for everyone.
All these amazing events were housed in a brand new Festival village which took over Imperial Square. Including a spacious Garden Theatre and a dedicated children's tent these new venues really allowed the festival to grow into one of the biggest Cheltenham has ever seen.
Festival Manager Clair Greenaway is thrilled with the success of this year's programme: "It's been an amazing Festival with so many great writers and it was hugely exciting to invite the likes of Gordon Brown, Bob Geldof, John Grisham and David Blunkett to Cheltenham alongside some huge literary names like Stephen Poliakoff, Martin Amis and Sarah Waters. It's been a big year for Festival firsts with the RSC, tented village and family Fun Day all making their debut in 2006. We are so glad so many people joined in with the festival fun - and we hope they all enjoyed the festival as much as we did!"