New multi-arts festival for Bath

Richard Wyatt,

Bath Festivals is launching a new multi-arts festival for the city.

Taking place from 19 – 28 May 2017, The Bath Festival will build on the heritage of our current festivals, Bath Literature Festival and Bath International Music Festival, bringing them into one new flagship festival, with music and literature at the heart, celebrating the city and engaging the wider community.

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This new structure of a single, larger arts festival is an evolution which will allow us to grow the number of world-class events that we can bring to our city and build on our position as a leading arts organisation in the region.

While The Bath Festival will include a wider range of events we will also continue to offer the core events from the literature and music festivals; including classical, jazz, world and folk music alongside contemporary fiction, intelligent debate, science, history, politics and poetry.

The Artistic Directors of The Bath Festival are Alex Clark, David Jones and James Waters. Alex is an editor and literary journalist who frequently writes for The Guardian, The Observer and The Times Literary Supplement.  She regularly chairs literary events and has also been on the judging panel for the Booker Prize. David Jones and James Waters are both leading figures in the music industry and experts in their own musical fields.  They initially joined Bath Festivals in 2015 becoming Artistic Directors of the International Music Festival in 2016.

Bath’s biggest night of free music, Party in the City will continue with over 2,000 people taking to stages across the city and 20,000 in attendance. The festival will also continue to provide year round extensive learning & participation opportunities for over 6,000 young people. Bath Festivals will continue to produce the much loved Bath Children’s Literature Festival.

A new festival brochure will be available in the New Year and you are advised tokeep an eye on the festival  website for all the latest programme news.

To read more about the city’s support for the new festival click here.

Published by Richard Wyatt

Freelance Journalist, broadcaster, columnist and local historian. Director of Bath Newseum. Married and lives in Bath. Interested in local history, architecture and visual display in museums and urban spaces.