The 2023 Portobello Book Festival was a great success and
we hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did.

Over the weekend, Portobello Book Festival attracted over 2000 people to the library, Jameson Gate, The Wash House and The Portobello Bookshop, and we have had some lovely feedback both from those taking part and those attending. Our intention is always to try as far as possible to make sure that those who make up the community of Portobello see themselves, their experiences and their interests reflected in the programme. The programme is also designed to bring together a distinctive mix of subjects, writers, commentators and readers.

The organising team would like to thank:

All our participating writers for inspiring and entertaining us.

Our fantastic chairs for keeping everything running smoothly.

Our soundman Jock and his assistant Reilly for making sure that everyone could be heard.

Our volunteers Eleanor and Susan, who were a great help over a busy weekend.

The ‘chair gang’ who helped moved 90 chairs from Portobello Town Hall to the library on Wednesday and back again on Monday. Also thanks to those who helped move chairs after events.

The Portobello Bookshop for hosting a great event to kick off the festival on Thursday evening. Also for providing a pop-up bookshop run by their cheerful staff over the weekend and making sure all our authors’ books were available for sale after each event.

Jameson Gate for hosting our event on Friday afternoon.

A big thank you to Paul Hudson and the staff of Portobello Library, a fantastic resource on our doorstep. We really take over the library over the weekend including their staff room! Special mention to Ian who sorted out a video link when one of our contributors couldn’t make it due to the weather on Saturday. The collaboration with the library and the help and time given by the library staff are what make the festival the success it is.

And of course, thanks to everyone who came along to the events and created such a vibrant atmosphere.

We start to plan our October festival well in advance so if you’re interested in being considered for inclusion, contacting us in the first half of January is a good idea. There are always limited spots and after our early planning sessions most of these are already accounted for. We’re volunteers so can’t always keep track of requests carrying over year on year, so getting in touch in early January makes it easier for us to consider you.

The 2024 programme will be launched early September
with tickets available shortly afterwards.