This summer, Clevedon LitFest returns with Roots & Routes, an ambitious celebration of belonging, identity, migration, landscape, memory, and storytelling set against the backdrop of North Somerset’s coastline.
Across four days, Clevedon will once again transform into a lively hub of conversation, creativity, music, poetry, performance, and ideas, bringing together nationally recognised authors, artists, historians, performers, and audiences for a weekend of thought-provoking events and joyful community atmosphere.
Inspired by the places we come from and the journeys we take, Roots & Routes explores the emotional, historical, ecological, and cultural forces that shape us. Roots symbolises ancestry, family, heritage, memory, and our relationship to place and the natural world, while Routes reflects movement, migration, transformation, travel, reinvention, and the paths we carve through life.
This year’s programme stretches across Clevedon’s cultural, arts, and seafront spaces, from major headline conversations at the Curzon Cinema, to intimate literary discussions at The Riff Corner, deep in conversation with award-winning authors and storytellers at The Theatre Shop, family interactive adventures and drama at The Barn Youth & Community Centre, and a selection of intimate workshops for all ages at Clevedon Library, alongside free live music, poetry, spoken word, and an immersive exhibition exploring the Bristol Bus Boycott at Clevedon Bandstand and across the seafront.
Audiences can expect a rich and varied programme spanning literature, history, folklore, politics, nature writing, family storytelling, migration, identity, performance, and contemporary culture, alongside free community events, creative workshops, exhibitions, and opportunities to meet authors throughout the weekend.
Whether you’re interested in powerful political discussion, history, nature and landscape writing, contemporary fiction, family events, or simply spending a summer weekend by the sea surrounded by stories and creativity, Clevedon LitFest offers something for readers, thinkers, wanderers, and dreamers of all ages.
Highlights
Historian, broadcaster, and bestselling author David Olusoga headlines this year’s festival at the Curzon Cinema with a special In Conversation event exploring history, identity, migration, and storytelling in modern Britain.
Award-winning writer Horatio Clare joins audiences at The Theatre Shop to discuss They Came By Sea, reflecting on migration, humanity, and the stories carried across coastlines and borders.
Tim Pears presents The West Country Trilogy, a sweeping portrait of landscape, rural life, and belonging across generations in the West Country.
Claire Adam, author of the award-winning novel Golden Child, discusses Love Forms, exploring family, motherhood, inheritance, and identity.
At The Riff Corner, Fiona Williams presents House of Broken Bricks, a powerful exploration of race, belonging, and rural identity in contemporary Britain, while nature writer Karen Lloyd discusses Earthworks: Land and Nature in Uncertain Times, exploring landscape, ecology, and our changing relationship with the natural world.
Adam Scovell joins the festival to discuss The Unquiet Landscape, exploring folklore, memory, hauntology, and the lingering emotional power of place. Families can enjoy interactive adventures and workshops throughout the weekend, including Dragon Bird Theatre’s The Missing Moon: A Space Adventure and Travelling Light’s creative drama storytelling workshops at The Barn Youth & Community Centre.
Free Events
Clevedon Bandstand becomes the heart of the festival’s free outdoor programme on Saturday 13 June, with a lively day of live music, poetry, spoken word, talks, performance, and community activity running from 11am – 4pm along the seafront. Set against the backdrop of the iconic pier and coastline, audiences are invited to grab a deckchair, bring a book, soak up the atmosphere, and drop in throughout the day to enjoy local artists, musicians, poets, performers, and spoken word. The festival will also feature the launch of a free immersive exhibition exploring the Bristol Bus Boycott, housed within a vintage bus installation. Audiences will be invited to step inside and explore the stories, voices, and legacy of one of Britain’s most important civil rights movements through archival material, storytelling, and public engagement. The installation forms part of the festival’s wider exploration of movement, migration, protest, identity, and social history through the Roots & Routes theme, in collaboration with Curiosity UnLtd, who are campaigning to make Bristol the UK’s Civil Rights Capital.
What Else
Audiences can explore mythology, folklore, migration, landscape, creativity, local history, and contemporary culture through a wide range of talks, workshops, performances, and family events across the festival weekend. Margaret Elphinstone brings Lost People to Clevedon, while Adam Scovell discusses The Unquiet Landscape, exploring folklore, memory, and the emotional power of place. Workshops include Myths With Marcus – is offering an adult workshop of finding meaning with myths, as well as a family friendly reading at The Theatre Shop, Adam Downton leads lessons on Fantasy Map Drawing for Kids, and we welcome Bristol’s Lil’writing shed, creative writing workshops designed for children. Our partners Books On The Hill will be hosting authors Matthew Myerscough’s In Search Of Sea Dragons and Dr Alanna Skuse’s The Surgeon, The Midwife, The Quack: How to Stay Alive in Renaissance England, alongside festival bookselling throughout the weekend with opportunities to purchase books and meet authors after events. Expect powerful conversations, imaginative storytelling, creative workshops, outdoor performance, family activities, and a warm community atmosphere celebrating stories that connect us across generations, places, and experiences.
Full timetable
You can get tickets to all events on the LitFest website