We had a fantastic first festival celebrating stories in Norwich, City of Literature. From brilliant children's writers, to renowned TV horror authors, to the best in non-fiction and contemporary literature, we invited everybody to get involved!
Over four days, in six venues, we had 35 ticketed events, with 77 authors and creatives sharing their creativity, and more than 22,000 visitors. Our Imaginarium welcomed families and people of all ages to explore stories in an interactive setting, and all of the activities were completely free to participate in.
The Imaginarium was home to stands celebrating all kinds of storytelling, including our very own dream factory, where people of all ages were encouraged to write down their wildest dreams, and post them off to come true! We also had exhibitors celebrating Shakespeare, developing literacy, interactive cartooning, live storytelling, and so much more.
Outside The Forum, the First Story Bus, kindly provided by First Bus, invited families to climb aboard and enjoy performances from storytellers, craft activities, and all the fun of sitting in the driver's seat!
“My children were star struck to meet a real author and illustrator. It really inspired them to have a go themselves and they used the illustrations they did in the workshop to create a book when we got home!”
Norwich Book Festival took over the City of Stories, with events taking place in venues across Norwich. National Centre for Writing, Waterstones, Jarrolds, St Peter Mancroft and Norwich Theatre Stage Two all hosted authors, with brilliant readings, talks, and fantastic audience questions.
We'd like to thank everybody who made our first Norwich Book Festival such a huge success, from our audience to authors, our partners and booksellers, and all the organisations and individuals who helped us start our story in style.
We're already planning for Norwich Book Festival 2025. Stay tuned for more news soon!
“This is such a wonderful event - one Norwich has been missing. So thank you for putting it on!”