Ilkley Literature Festival 2023

It is a joy to provide PR support to Ilkley Literature Festival. After the fall-out of the pandemic, it hasn’t been an easy time for events, but 2023 has seen…

It is a joy to provide PR support to Ilkley Literature Festival.

After the fall-out of the pandemic, it hasn’t been an easy time for events, but 2023 has seen the north’s oldest literary festival in ruddy good health as it celebrates its 50th anniversary.

We kick started the campaign with a feature that Director of Cause UK, Ann Chadwick, wrote for the Yorkshire Post, interviewing the current director of the festival, Erica Morris, as well as her predecessor, Rachel Feldberg, looking back at the festival’s literary legacy and forward to 2023’s eclectic line-up. You can read it here.

Erica said: “I feel I’ve inherited this grand house, handed down by the previous generations of directors. I hugely admire the work of all those who have supported, volunteered, and worked at the festival over 50 years and I’m proud we are still here to carry on their vision and ambition.”

Erica also wrote a comment piece for Northern Soul on the legacy.

The Yorkshire Post provided amazing support with news stories, comment, editorials, and features, interviewing 2023 headline authors including Clare Balding, Gyles Brandreth and Tim Marshall.

BBC Radio Leeds were also brilliant profiling the event, with interviews on air with Clare Balding, Gyles Brandreth, Gavin Esler and Erica. We were thrilled too, to set up a live interview with Samuel Kasumu for Times Radio, and get a plug on BBC Radio 2.

Yorkshire Times provided lots of support too, as did the brilliant Ilkley Chat and Ilkley Gazette.

We ensured profile too in long lead regional magazines, including Yorkshire Life, Yorkshire Living and Living North.

Ann interviewed Anton Du Beke for the Telegraph and Argus, and fixed up a 2-page interview with Clare Balding in Bella magazine, as well as securing a travel piece on the district in the I newspaper, which featured a short interview with festival director, Erica.

To date, our media monitoring tool shows we’ve achieved 115 pieces of media coverage, with 1.52m estimated views and an audience of 939m (online only).

There’s still time to catch some incredible authors, as the festival runs until 22 October!