Exciting festival that’s truly local and genuinely supports excellence.
The 2025 Deptford Literature Festival took place from Thursday 27 March through to Sunday 30 March, with the launch event on Friday 28 March 2025 curated by Emma Warren, and the main Festival day on Saturday 29 March 2025.
The Festival invited audiences to explore what literature means to us today in Deptford and Lewisham. The programme featured workshops, talks, walks and performances, including ways to get involved from home, and with the Lewisham, Borough of Literature campaign. The Festival also commissioned an independent Environmental Impact Report.
The 2025 Deptford Literature Festival was delivered in partnership with creative producer Tom MacAndrew; funded by Arts Council England and supported by Cockayne Grants for the Arts, London Community Foundation, the Authors Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), the Albany, Deptford Lounge and Lewisham Libraries.
The 2025 Festival reached 7,656 people through 25 accessible live literature events, 16 public workshops, 98 participation sessions, 9 children’s and young people’s events, 3 online events, as well as 6 online recordings 12 community projects, 11 new writing commissions, self-led walking tour with new place-based poetry commission, 6 events by local artists via open call, online at-home resource pack, exhibition featuring work by local elders, and Festival Hub for local publishers and booksellers. The majority of the events were free and BSL interpreted. Footfall at Deptford Lounge, the Festival Hub, was 1,668 on the day.
Such a fantastic festival full of really high-quality, specific, useful and enjoyable events – diverse in its talent and deep in its expertise shared.
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.
This is a splendid festival and a vital resource for the community.