ChipLitFest calls it a day
The trustees of ChipLitFest, the Chipping Norton Literary Festival, announced today, 14 October 2024, that the Festival will close after a decade of bringing a wealth of writers and illustrators to the Cotswold town.
Founded in 2012 by the bestselling author and former Chippy resident, Clare Mackintosh, and led by Jenny Dee since 2016, over the last decade (give or take two years off because of COVID) ChipLitFest has welcomed over 1,000 writers in over 550 events as well as delivering a successful programme for local schools to at least 10,000 children and young people. The Festival also introduced the first profit scheme for participating authors.
Liz Sich, Acting Chair of Trustees, said, “The current financial climate and funding challenges have sadly made it impossible to continue to stage an annual festival. The trustees would like to pay tribute to and thank the team of volunteers who have worked so hard to make ChipLitFest such a success over the years, all our supporters, partners, Friends, patrons, sponsors and advertisers, and of course our authors, illustrators and interviewers.
Festival Director, Jenny Dee, commented, “Bringing an extraordinary range of voices to our small rural town has been a huge pleasure. Chipping Norton revelled in the variety of stories, arguments and opinions that we brought to the handsome venues, including the gorgeous Theatre, amongst the shops, pubs and cafes. Many local businesses supported the festival through sponsorship, our loyal audiences joined the Festival Friends and an unpaid team of energetic and devoted people programmed, planned, and photographed the events. Our wonderful partner bookshop, Jaffé & Neale, sold heaps of books for us and, last but definitely not least, hundreds and hundreds of brilliant authors and illustrators joined us to share their wonderful words and pictures.
“It’s almost impossible to pick out just one highlight of the festival but something that will stay with me for a very long time was learning that a student at a specialist school for excluded pupils had produced a piece of written work for the first time ever after a series of workshops led by author Bali Rai. This was part of an outreach project that we ran for several years with school-excluded pupils and looked-after young people. This kind of event was at the heart of ChipLitFest and our mission to make reading and writing truly accessible to as many people as possible.”
ChipLitFest’s grand finale will feature two special events at the Chipping Norton Theatre, generously supported by Inkspot Publishing. The first is on Tuesday 26 November by Tik Tok sensation and international bestseller, John Finnemore, with a new Cain’s Jawbone puzzle, The Researcher’s First Murder.
On Thursday 12 December, Dr Rachel Clarke will talk about her new book, The Story of a Heart, the unforgettable story of how one family's grief transformed into a lifesaving gift for a young boy.
Tickets for both events are available here:
https://www.chiplitfest.com/events/the-researchers-first-murder
https://www.chiplitfest.com/events/the-story-of-a-heart
Notes to Editors
Jenny Dee can be contacted on 07958 344078; jenny@chiplitfest.com; Liz Sich can be contacted on 07956 612380; liz.sich@btinternet.com
Since 2012 Chipping Norton has held its Literary Festival each April, celebrating writing and reading in attractive venues at the heart of this charming Cotswold town. Everyone at ChipLitFest is a volunteer, from the venue ushers to the Festival Director. Almost 100 people have worked tirelessly throughout each year to deliver the programme of literary events.
ChipLitFest earned its reputation as one of the friendliest and most innovative festivals, bringing a wide-ranging array of writers, poets, public figures and creative people to the town and drawing large and lively audiences from a wide area. Over the last decade, it has welcomed Jim Al Khalili, David Baddiel, Jo Brand, Candice Carty-Williams, Lee Child, Lyse Doucet, Frank Gardner, Natalie Haynes, Armando Iannucci, Prue Leith, Jenni Murray, David Nicholls, Robert Peston, Ian Rankin, Tony Robinson, Alan Rusbridger, SF Said, Dominic Sandbrook, Lionel Shriver, Polly Toynbee, Kit de Waal, Terry Waite and Reggie Yates, among scores of others.
While focusing on the four-day festival over the last weekend in April, ChipLitFest also presented a number of accessible, entertaining events throughout the year – both celebrity speakers and workshops – to satisfy the appetite of its many supporters for literature in all its forms. The annual ChipLitFest short story competition attracted hundreds of entries.
The ChipLitFest Children’s Programme reached out to children and young people throughout the Chipping Norton Schools Partnership, including those not in mainstream educational settings and those who have been school-excluded. Much of the programme was free or priced at £2.50 a ticket to make it as accessible as possible. ChipLitFest also arranged author visits to eighteen local schools.
Chipping Norton Literary Festival is a registered charity, no: 1152866.