The world’s longest-running literature festival has welcomed its biggest-ever box office as it celebrates the enduring power of stories in the National Year of Reading.
The Times and Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival has closed its 2026 edition with the highest Box Office in its history, bringing together readers, writers and audiences of all ages for ten days to celebrate the stories that matter. Taking place from 9-18 October, the Festival welcomed more than 1,000 authors and speakers across more than 500 events and sold a record breaking 103, 394 tickets, 10,000 more than 2025, demonstrating a lasting appetite for stories, ideas and shared experiences.
In the National Year of Reading, the Festival brought together emerging talent, literary greats and household names including Michael Morpurgo, Katherine Ryan, Fearne Cotton, Craig Revel Horwood, Sajid Javid, Celia Imrie, Russell T Davies, Joe Marler, Mary Berry, Prue Leith and Reece Shearsmith, along with schools, families and community groups, showing the power of literature to spark curiosity, open up new perspectives and connect people across generations.
Audiences heard from some of the most compelling voices in literature, film and TV including rugby legend and Celebrity Traitors star Joe Marler on men’s mental health in sport, award-winning author Maggie O’Farrell on adapting her novel Hamnet, Radio 1 DJ Greg James on how audiobooks are an important gateway into reading for young people, and Meera Syal on the generational stories, experiences and wisdom that shape our lives. Across the programme, conversations ranged from fiction and memoir to history, politics, sport, art, nature and popular culture, reflecting the many ways people engage with stories.
Inspiring the next generation of readers
A central part of this year’s Festival was its commitment to shaping the next generation of storytellers. Around 12,000 school children from across Gloucestershire took part in Festival events, while families enjoyed an extensive programme of interactive shows, workshops and creative activities in the Festival’s dedicated Children’s Area, along with events featuring How to Train Your Dragon Author Cressida Cowell, Lottie Brooks creator Katie Kirby, Grimwood author Nadia Shireen and BBC The Sky at Night presenter Maggie Aderin.
The Festival also continues to create opportunities for young people to share their own stories and explore the issues that matter to them. In VOICEBOX - Cheltenham Festivals’ free programme made for young people by young people - emerging creatives and established voices including Heartstopper star Bradley Riches, Frequently Happy author David Larbi, and campaigner and broadcaster Ashley James were just some of the creatives who spoke to audiences, amplifying bold voices, sparking big conversations, and inspiring change through performances, talks and workshops spanning pop culture, identity, wellbeing and society.
A highlight was Words That Burn, the human-rights poetry project delivered in collaboration with Amnesty International UK. Spoken-word artist John Bernard performed alongside students from local secondary schools, using poetry and creative language to give voice to young people who are often marginalised, exploring injustice and inequality within the education system.
The Festival’s New Voices strand also championed emerging literary talent such as Imani Thompson and Leodora Darlington, Madeline Cash and Stacey Yu, providing a platform for writers at the start of their careers to reach new audiences. The programme underlined the importance of festivals as places not only to celebrate established authors, but to discover the storytellers of the future. The Festival also celebrated new literary talent through the InWords Literary Award, with Helen Bain receiving the £5,000 TILA Coda for her novel, The Daffodil Days, along with Stephanie Sy-Quia for A Private Man.
Collage of Cheltenham Literature Festival attendees, images by Still Moving Media.
Bringing communities together
Beyond the Festival stages, the charity brought storytelling into the heart of Cheltenham town through Cheltenham Writes Back, a new around-town project inspired by this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction winning Big Read pick, Virginia Evans’ The Correspondent. Working with local Partners, the project invited residents and visitors to explore themes of connection, belonging and community around town through Postmarked: Letter Writing Stations and Fragments: A Poetry Trail, in association with Cheltenham BID.
At the Festival, the project culminated in a special installation created in collaboration with The Sunday Letter Project, bringing together 3,500 letters written by community members. From reflections on Festival experiences and book recommendations to words of wisdom for strangers, the letters offered a collective portrait of the stories, ideas and connections that can grow when people take the time to write to one another.
The Festival also welcomed local community voices into its spaces, including Sahara Sahali, a Muslim women’s group, on The Huddle stage, and the launch of the St Paul’s Community Cookbook. These moments reflected the Festival’s belief that stories are not only found in books or on stage, but in the lives, knowledge and experiences of people from across Gloucestershire and beyond.
Thanks to the support of TrinityBridge, who supported this year’s Volunteer Programme, more than 270 volunteers helped bring the Festival to life, donating 7789 hours between them, and who without, the Festival wouldn’t be possible.
Collage of Cheltenham Literature Festival attendees, images by Still Moving Media.
Making culture accessible for everyone
More than 30% of this year’s Literature Festival activity was free to attend, from the Festival Village’s dedicated Children’s Area and community events to The Huddle, The Snug, The Hush and VOICEBOX stages. This commitment to widening cultural access forms part of Cheltenham Festivals’ wider strategy, The Next Chapter, launched in June, which sets out the charity’s ambition to make 50% of activity free across its four Festivals, Literature, Jazz, Science and Music, by 2030.
As an arts charity, Cheltenham Festivals works throughout the year with schools, Partners and communities to make arts and culture engaging and accessible, while nurturing emerging talent and creating opportunities for underrepresented voices. The 2026 Festival brought that year-round mission to life, offering audiences new ways to take part, discover something unexpected and feel part of a shared cultural experience.
More than 100 tickets were distributed through Cheltenham Festivals’ Connections scheme during the Festival, helping people who might not otherwise have the opportunity to attend. Working with local charity partners including the social prescribing team at Caring for Communities and People (CCP), Cheltenham Borough Homes (CBH), Gloucestershire Deaf Association (GDA), and Cheltenham Welcomes Refugees (CWR), the scheme continues to open up access to live cultural experiences, helping more people feel welcome and part of the Festival.
MJ Arlidge, Guest Curator for the 2026 Festival, said “It’s been a privilege to be part of a Festival that brings so many different stories and voices together. The best stories entertain us, but they also challenge us, surprise us and help us understand one another. It is particularly exciting to see new writers and young people given the space to share their work alongside some of the biggest names in literature, keeping storytelling alive for the next generation.”
As the 2026 Festival draws to a close, its record Box Office sits alongside a wider legacy: thousands of people inspired by books and ideas, community stories shared across Cheltenham, and new voices given a platform. In the National Year of Reading, the Festival has reaffirmed the power of storytelling to bring people together, and to inspire the readers and writers of the future.
Nicola Tuxworth, Artistic Director for Cheltenham Literature Festival, said:
“We’re thrilled to have achieved a record-breaking year in The National Year of Reading. It shows just how much people resonate with ideas and stories across all genres, ages and forms, from audiobooks and poetry to graphic novels and beloved classics. We’re proud that at Cheltenham Literature Festival, there is something for everyone.
From conversations with internationally celebrated authors, to the voices of local communities, schoolchildren and emerging writers, the Festival is a place where everyone can find a story that speaks to them. In the National Year of Reading, we are proud to be inspiring readers, opening doors to new voices and making more of the Festival accessible to everyone.”
