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Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
This weeks theme is:
July 21: Book Events/Festivals I’d Love to Go to Someday
According to week’s TTT theme post, these can be real or fictional events and festivals, but I’m going to go with real events, because there are quite a few I’d love to go to.
It’s not safe to go to a lot of events right now, so most of these are events I’d like to attend from 2021 onwards.
Also, if you’re wondering why YALC, LFCC, and London Comic Con aren’t on this list, it’s because I’ve already been to all three quite a few times, and I decided to focus on events I’ve never been to.
Cheltenham Literature Festival
This is one of the biggest UK literature festivals that takes place every autumn in Cheltenham. The festival celebrates the written word by hosting debates, interviews, workshops and more with over 600 writers, poets, actors, and politicians.
This year, my sister will be living very close to Cheltenham, so if the festival goes ahead I might finally get to go.
Hay Festival
The Hay Festival is an arts and literature held in Hay-on-Wye, Wales, for ten days from May to June.
The festival has been running since 1988, and is well known for having great talks and panels. It wouldn’t take me too long to travel to Hay now that I have a car, so perhaps I could go next year.
Book Con
Book Con is one of the largest and most well known book conventions in the US, taking place every year in New York. It combines comic con vibes with a book festival layout and lineup and sounds absolutely incredible.
As well as getting to meet authors I love and buy US editions, I’d love to go to be able to meet friends in the book community and other Booktubers.
YALLFest
YALLFest was founded in 2011 by Jonathan Sanchez, Kami Garcia, and Margaret Stohl, and is a two-day book festival in Charleston, South Carolina. It seems to garner a lot of US YA authors, so I would love to go and meet some of my faves.
YALLWest
This is the sister convention of YALLFest and it takes place every spring in Santa Monica, California. Similar to YALLFest, it garners a lot of YA authors so I think I’d have a great time if I ever get to go. I’d also love to go back to California.
Edinburgh International Book Festival
Edinburgh Book Festival perhaps doesn’t get as much hype as Cheltenham and Hay, but it’s just as exciting and impressive. Every year the festivals sees around 900 authors from over 60 countries attend.
I’d like to go to Edinburgh Book Festival next year because I know that Victoria Schwab was invited this year, and I’m hoping she’d be there again next year to give a talk!
San Diego Comic Con
This is a convention I’ve wanted to go to for years. It’s perhaps a bit of a pipe dream, but a dream nonetheless. I’ve been to LFCC and London MCM Comic Con quite a few times and I would love to go to the legendary San Diego Comic Con.
Ironically, when I went to the US in 2011, we visited San Diego and I saw all the posters and flags for it. But we’d missed it by two days. Two. Days. (Although, even if we had been there at the right time, who knows if we would have been able to get tickets!)
Berlin International Book Festival
The Berlin Book Festival takes place every September,and I’d love to go for three reasons:
1. I’ve never visited the city, so I’d love to go when there were lots of literary things happening.
2. I’d want to go to the Scritture Giovani. This is a special event that takes place during the festival. It’s a collaborative project of Festivaletteratura Mantova and the Hay Festival that aims is to promote young European authors.
3. I’d want to attend the poetry nights and graphic novel day that they run.
Frankfurt Book Fair
This is the world’s largest trade fair for books, and I imagine the atmosphere is amazing. would love to attend sand be part of the at. For deals and trading, it’s considered the most important book fair in the world and I would love to attend someday if I could (I’m not sure if you have to be a publishing professional to go to it).
London Book Fair
And finally, this list wouldn’t be complete without the London Book Fair. This is more of a trade show for writers and publishing professionals, but as far as I know, it’s open to the public as well and I’d love to go one year to soak up the atmosphere.
Which book conventions or festivals would you love to go to? Are there any that you’ve already been to?
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Great list! Hay and Cheltenham are both really good (especially Hay), and I’m glad I’ve been to London Book Fair but it’s not one of my favourites. I’d love to go to SDCC!
Thanks Jess! Oh that’s good to know! I’d definitely like to go to Cheltenham soon. It’s awesome that you’ve been to Cheltenham, Hay, and LBF!
First time in years I won’t be at Edinburgh Book Fest or the Fringe this August 😢 Hopefully next year! And I love Berlin, it’s such an interesting and vibrant city. I didn’t know about the book fest so off to read up on it! Great list!
Aww no, I’m so sorry! I hope you get to go next year! Yes, Berlin sounds wonderful; I’d definitely like to go in the next few years 😀
Oooh, I hadn’t heard about the Berlin one, but attending that sounds like an EXCELLENT use of my German Literature degree…. Hmm…
Yeah, it sounds really good! Definitely a great use of your degree if you decide to go! 😀
Amazing list!
Thank you so much!
I haven’t been to many book festivals (apart from NYA and YALC) however this list has certainly given me food for thought and is making me want to seek out and attend more conventions when it’s safe to do so again. I think I should definitely check out my local book festival too although I don’t think it will be happening this year.
Ooh I’m so glad this gave you food for thought! What’s your local festival? The closest one to me is probably Cheltenham so I’m hoping to go to that this year or next 🙂
I feel like San Diego comic con is the pinnacle of all conventions. It’ll be interesting to see how the comic con at home set up works, but I’d love to go there one day.
Yeah, it’s definitely one of the biggest conventions globally! I’d love to go too in the future 😀