This is an amazing event – ground-breaking and celebratory of exciting new voices. To be in the same room and hear from inspirational new and established diverse writers was incredible.
The 2024 Deptford Literature Festival launch event – curated by Tice Cin and Neoprene Genie – took place on Friday 27 March 2024, with the main Festival day being Saturday 16 March 2024.
The Festival invited audiences to explore what literature means to us today in Deptford with many of the events programmed under the Festival theme of Untold Stories, Unheard Histories. The programme featured workshops, talks, walks and performances, including ways to get involved from home, and launched the Lewisham, Borough of Literature campaign.
The 2024 Deptford Literature Festival was delivered in partnership with creative producer Tom MacAndrew. The Festival was funded by Arts Council England and supported by National Lottery Awards for All, the Authors Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), the Albany and Deptford Lounge.
The 2024 Festival reached 18,168 people, with 5,304 directly engaged as attendees and participants. 30 accessible live literature events taking place on the Festival day (including 13 workshops, 5 family events, 4 panels and 3 talks/ performances), 4 online events, as well as 7 online recordings, 4 podcasts and 6 community projects. The majority of the events were free, all were BSL interpreted. Footfall at Deptford Lounge, the Festival Hub, was 1,860 on the day.
Great event and wonderful to have neurodiversity and disability (BSL) catered for.
The Festival worked with 117 artists and 32 partners. In total 96 of programmed artists were from South London and 62% from within Lewisham. 57% of audiences were from within Lewisham or from a neighbouring borough (Bromley, Greenwich, Southwark), and 41% from Lewisham itself. 70% of our audiences attend literature events once a year or less, with 31% have never attended such an event before. 44% festival attendees were from Black, Asian and Global Majority backgrounds, 42% LGBTQ+, 23% Deaf and disabled, 34% neurodivergent and 41% working class.
Really good to have an event like this in Lewisham.