Welcome to Bradford Literature Festival
explore words, discover worlds
Save the dates: 24 June – 3 July 2022: Highlights Now Revealed
Welcome to Bradford Literature Festival.
Join us this summer to explore words and discover worlds at the largest literature festival in the North of England.
We are delighted to be back in 2022 in live event mode with a full and exciting programme after two years of hybrid and online digital events.
Click here to view a digital copy of the Bradford Literature Festival 2022 Programme Brochure
Come and meet authors, poets, speakers, musicians and artists from Bradford, the UK and around the world. BLF is a key event in the UK cultural calendar and the most dynamic festival in the country that you will not want to miss. We have now revealed some highlights, see our news pages to find out more. In early May we will be unveiling the full programme and ticket sales will go live then. In the meantime you can join our mailing list for the latest news.
You can catch up on our digital programme from 2021 in our Watch on Demand archive. In September we will be launching a full digital education programme with more enjoyable content for you to watch.
We are looking forward to welcoming you back for ten days of compelling and inspirational events and we are so excited to see you there in person.
If you would like to receive the latest news and updates, sign up to our BLF mailing list and become a member of the festival family.
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Festival Projects & Themes
We work year-round delivering projects across Bradford and the West Yorkshire region. For information on our current projects and related events, click on the tiles below.
Festival Information
Little Amal to Journey Through Bradford, Sharing a Message of Hope
Bradford and Bradford Literature Festival are honoured to welcome Little Amal to City Park for a parade, poetry performances and craft activities as she visits us on 20th June to meet new friends and share a message of hope.
Amal is a 3.5 meter puppet. From July to November 2021, representing all displaced children, many separated from their families, Amal travelled over 8,000km embodying the urgent message “Don’t forget about us”.
On World Refugee Day, Amal will visit Bradford, one of the most culturally diverse and youngest populations in the United Kingdom.
Business Daily covers the Creative Economic Conference line-up
We have now announced the line-up for the Creative Economic Conference (CEC), which will focus on the importance of the creative industries to the UK economy, placing the cultural sector at the heart of ‘levelling up’ in the North through economic and social regeneration.
Festival 2022 highlights in the news - Hockney, heritage, history and the Brontës
This week the Telegraph and Argus featured our heritage highlights, with a focus on the unique Hockney heritage tours and of course our annual Bronte themed events. Click the link to read all about the exciting events we have programmed around Bradford’s rich and vibrant history of culture.
Bradford Literature Festival Announces Full 2022 Programme
The North of England’s leading literature festival – Bradford Literature Festival (BLF) – today announces the full 2022 programme for its eighth annual live in-person festival featuring over 500 events for adults and children across 10 remarkable days between 24 June and 3 July 2022.
2022 Programme Highlights Revealed
After two years of hybrid and digital events, the North of England’s leading literature festival – Bradford Literature Festival (BLF) – today announces its 2022 programme highlights featuring world-class authors, academics, spiritual leaders, and exciting new literary talent at live, in-person events.
BLF Education Programme 2022 bookings are now live
Our ground breaking education programme is now open for booking. We offer FREE educational days to all schools in Bradford featuring inspirational writers and performer, including everything from talks and readings with your favourite writers to interactive performances and creative workshops. Contact us today to book your schools place.
BLF Founder, CEO and Co-Founder awarded MBEs in the New Year Honours for services to literature and heritage respectively.
We are so proud and delighted that our Founder, CEO and AD Syima Aslam and Co-Founder Irna Qureshi have been have been awarded MBEs in the New Year Honours for services to literature and heritage respectively. This is a tremendous accolade for work of the festival and for these fabulous women.Syima said; “The city of Bradford and its people have been the inspiration for the festival’s innovative programmes of exceptional arts and culture, international in outlook with roots firmly planted in the industrial heritage of Yorkshire.”
Free Festival Tickets
Here at BLF, we are committed to making all our events as inclusive and accessible as possible, which is why our ticket prices remain low and why many of our events are free.
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