THE decision to pull the plug on the Ways With Words literature festival has been hailed the “end of an era.”
The festival celebrated it’s 30th anniversary at the beautiful Dartington Estate in July, but “plummeting” ticket sales means the event is no longer financially viable, say organisers.
In a statement on its website, Ways With Words, which also runs literary festivals in the Lake District and Suffolk, said it had faced “incredibly difficult challenges” over the last two-and-a-half years due to the Covid pandemic and the UK’s current financial crisis.
The statement said: “Through the first year of Covid we were unable to run any festivals, and as events were allowed to run again we were only able to host limited audiences. From there the country has moved into an economic situation where households are facing difficult financial choices.
“We know from other colleagues and literary festivals that most literary events have seen smaller audiences and lower revenue.
“As a small team, we have worked incredibly hard to keep Ways With Words going since 2020 but sadly we are no longer currently viable and we have had to make the decision to cease running events.
“We will cherish the many happy memories from all our festivals over the years and we thank you for all your support.”
Dartington Hall Trust’s creative director, Emily Hoare described the festival as part of the estate’s “cultural landscape” and said she was was sad to see its demise.
She said: “It is very sad that Ways With Words is unable to continue, these are challenging times for cultural organisations.
“Since Kay [Dunbar] and Steve [Bristow] started Ways With Words 30 years ago the festival at Dartington has been its main event of the year, so this is truly the end of an era that has seen many wonderful authors and speakers become part of our cultural landscape on the estate.”
Ways With Words promoted both the written and the spoken word and attracted an incredible range of speakers and performers who addressed topics from pottery to poetry, international politics to plays, science, sociology, comedy and more.
It celebrated a wide variety of famous writers including Shakespeare, the Bronte sisters and Ted Hughes, alongside contemporary poets and novelists.
Among the festival’s thousands of inspiring speakers over the past three decades were poet and Nobel Prize for Literature winner Seamus Heaney; media commentator Jonathan Dimbleby; best selling novelists Kate Mosse and Virginia Ironside; radical and political thinker Tariq Ali; journalist Martin Bell; actor, writer and director Steven Berkoff; TV presenter Dan Cruickshank; screenwriter Andrew Davies; environmentalists Satish Kumar and Jonathon Porritt, and Woman’s Hour presenter Jenni Murray.
Among this year’s speakers were novelist Joanne Harris; journalist and essayist George Monbiot; author and radio/TV presenter Martin Sixsmith; and former foreign secretary David Owen.
Kay teamed up with her husband Stephen to put on the first Ways With Words event near her home in Dartington in 1991.
It was originally intended to be a one-off literature festival but it quickly became clear that just one festival was not going to satisfy the huge number of people who turned up, and so it became an annual event.
The first festival included luminaries of writing such as Anthony Burgess, best known for his dystopian novel A Clockwork Orange, Mary Wesley and Melvyn Bragg.
Ways With Words has also cancelled its Words by the Water festival in the Lake District after experiencing low ticket sales at Dartington, and has ceased planning events for the foreseeable future.
On Its website, Ways With Words said: “Leah [Varnell] and Bryony [Devine], who have been running Ways With Words in recent times, are hoping to continue running literary events.
“They are currently researching how this might work. If you would like to be notified about any future events they plan, please email [email protected] so they can keep in touch with you.
“If you have any other queries please email [email protected]. We cannot say how long it will take to reply but we will respond to every email.”