– and two award nominations
The multi-award-winning Huddersfield Literature Festival will return in May 2025 after securing Arts Council support. HuddLitFest25 will take place from 8 to 18 May, with a theme of ‘Yorkshire’ to support the writers, poets and performers of the region.
The Festival has also been selected as a finalist at the prestigious Yorkshire Post Tourism awards for the third year running. The awards will take place on 2 December and the Festival is a finalist in two categories: the Culture award and the Accessible & Inclusive Tourism award, which it won in 2022.
Confirmed guests for the 2025 Festival include Alan Johnson for his biography of Harold Wilson, bestselling author Joanne Harris for her new novel Vianne, and acclaimed writers Yvonne Battle-Felton, Rachel Joyce, Stephen May and Michael Stewart.
There will be creative writing workshops led by respected authors and tutors including novelist Okechukwu Nzelu, a calligraphy workshop with Razwan Ul-Haz and wellbeing workshops with local practitioner Juliet Thomas. Families will be able to enjoy free and low-cost children’s entertainment, from character costume walkabouts to Crime Busting Workshops and Storytelling with Spider-Man.
Several special projects and partnership events are planned, including performance by local organisation Conscious Youth and by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority Young Poet Laureates, plus projects with Balbir Singh Dance Company, Dark Horse Theatre, Give… a Few Words, MACFEST, Radio Sangam and West Yorkshire Print Workshop.
HuddLitFest’s Schools Programme, which last year reached around 5,000 primary and senior school students in Huddersfield, will once again offer a range of multi-arts workshops, assemblies and resources in the run up to the Festival dates.
Continuing its commitment to accessibility, the Festival will include online and hybrid events, subtitled events and AccessAble access guides to key venues.
Festival Director Michelle Hodgson said: “In a very challenging funding landscape, we are delighted to have been awarded an Arts Council England grant to support HuddLitFest25, and thrilled to have received two award nominations at the prestigious Yorkshire Post awards. We will continue to deliver a high-quality, accessible and representative Festival programme, with many free, low-cost and online events, and we look forward to announcing further high-profile guests and innovative partnership projects.”
In addition to Arts Council England funding, the Festival is grateful for grants from the University of Huddersfield’s School of Arts & Humanities, from the players of People’s Postcode Lottery who are supporting a project of workshops for young people, and One17 Charitable Trust, which is supporting the Schools Programme. Plus funded and in-kind sponsorship and support from Kirklees College, Wilkinson Woodward, Longley Farm, Sleigh & Story and Ravenhall Risk Solutions.
The first events will be available to view and book on the Festival website before the end of the year and further information can be found at: https://www.huddlitfest.org.uk/
