Forum Topic

Chiswick Book Festival

I attended several events at the Chiswick Book Festival last weekend, with a friend, as her husband was unable to go with her. The events were very good, though a couple of them had many empty seats, which was sad and must have been demoralising for the authors concerned. I thought back to the early years of the Book Festival, when day passes were available and many more events were fuller as a result, as people were able to see more, and went to things for which they would not normally have paid. I loved the day passes and went to so many fascinating and diverse events a talks as a result. I would therefore ask the organisers to reinstate them next year, even just on a standby basis, with events that need filling made available to pass holders on the day, or even an hour or two before they started. Doing this would not only increase audience numbers and make those authors running the events feel more valued, but would also doubtless increase revenue for the festival itself.

Rick Hayward ● 732d8 Comments

I picked up one at a cafe in Ealing. It's hard to for choose and I wish the grandchildren were around for the children's events.You do need to check the website for new additions to the listings.

Philippa Bond ● 22d

I picked up a booklet at the National Archives in Kew giving details of the 2025 festival running from 10-15 September, and was surprised that it didn't seem to have been mentioned on CW4. The website is www.chiswickbookfestival.net Lots of interesting events for adults and children in various venues around Chiswick with a variety of well-known faces appearing.

Richard Greenhough ● 26d

You are right about the Wimbledon Festival - £20 to hear Clive Myrie compared to just £10 in Chiswick. However, the Barnes Book Festival, which I'd forgotten about until you mentioned it, has similar prices to Chiswick - generally £10 with some bigger names at £15.I appreciate that this is a difficult balance for festival organisers. Publishers and agents will be mainly interested in bums on seats and book sales at the event so full houses will attract bigger names but ticket sales are what generates money for the charities therefore there is a limit to how much you can discount.

Felicity Caborn ● 729d

I was away at the weekend but did hear from some friends that they were surprised at the number of spaces at events they attended. This wasn't down to the quality of the speakers and you just have to look at the availability of tickets for West End shows and plays across the capital to realise people have cut back on discretionary spending of this kind. The organisers' primary responsibility is to raise money for the charities the event is benefiting but the Chiswick Book Festival's USP used to be that it was much better value than  for instance the ones at Barnes and Wimbledon. That still seems to be the case but the withdrawal of day passes has made it less so.

Jeremy Parkinson ● 731d

I was thinking along similar lines.  I wonder if it would be possible to make ‘star’ presenters bookable in advance and the rest available through day passes?  In the event of this or that star having unsold seats on the day these could be also allocated on a first come first served basis?  This could be the best of both worlds.

Alastair Banton ● 731d

The weather was definitely a factor for me but I also think the day passes were a big attraction. Previously I had a group of friends who would come over for the day and we would not necessarily all attend the same session but would meet up for lunch and dinner.If I remember correctly, a number of sessions were not eligible for the day passes previously, so possibly the answer is to expand the number that don't qualify or make some events 'provisional' i.e. you'll only find out on the day whether you can get in.

Felicity Caborn ● 731d

Hello Rick. Thanks for this suggestion.  I’m afraid the day and weekend passes became impractical several years ago when the Festival became more popular and we had to start turning people away, even though they had tickets. While everyone liked the flexibility, they did not like the fact that they couldn't guarantee getting a seat at the events they really wanted to go to and we had no way of knowing which events people would choose to attend. I’m not sure that ‘more events were fuller’. We now offer a much greater choice of events and while we would love them all to be fully sold (like Clive Myrie, Michael Frayn, Marcus Brigstocke & Jess Phillips, Maximus The Mouse, the walks, the Local Authors Showcase and others) - some sessions are simply less popular than others. I’m not sure how a ‘standby’ day pass would work - or how it would increase our revenue - but would be happy to hear more. I agree that the hot weather will have contributed to some of those empty seats but we have sold more tickets and taken more revenue this year than ever before, which is great news for the charities we support.

Torin Douglas ● 732d

I wonder if the too high temp was to blame, as it was pretty horrible out there!

Elle Jones ● 732d