‘All Together Now’ was the overarching theme announced in June, and this year’s Book Festival saw families, adults and school pupils flock to the Book Festival’s new site at Edinburgh Collage of Art to enjoy a range of activities and events, browse the Festival’s independent Bookshop and relax in the grassy courtyard.
The Book Festival’s 2022 programme featured over 600 events, including 150 in the Baillie Gifford Children’s Programme and 18 created especially for schools. 200 of the events were livestreamed on the Book Festival website and many will remain available to watch on-demand until later in the year.
Edinburgh International Book Festival audiences are well-known for snapping up tickets weeks in advance of August, however this year the Book Festival experienced a significant shift in booking behaviour. Whilst sales were steady throughout, it became clear that people were choosing to book much later than they had ever done in the past – with the number of on-the-day bookers exceeding anything seen before.
Overall, 100,000 tickets were sold across the in-person and livestreamed events, with people watching from 65 countries. With a new location, Pay What You Can ticket prices for all livestreams and for 31 in-real-life events, plus daily free author events across the 17 days, the Book Festival attracted a more diverse audience, with a greater proportion of new attenders alongside thousands of established festival-goers who were keen to return.
Another innovation, introduced in 2021, was a big outdoor screen in the Festival’s grassy courtyard on which 45 events were available to watch for free this year, attracting crowds of adults and children, particularly in fair weather.
Nick Barley, Director at Edinburgh International Book Festival, said: “My heartfelt thanks go to all the individuals and organisations who have supported Edinburgh International Book Festival and given us the opportunity to innovative and create an ambitious new hybrid Festival which we can build upon in future years.
“This year was always going to be a bit of an unknown, but the overwhelmingly positive response we have received from audiences old and new, local residents, festival goers and authors and individuals from every corner of the world, has made it an absolute joy to deliver.
“We are under no illusions that this is only the beginning of our build-back journey, and our focus now is to consolidate and respond to what we’ve learned from this year as we plan our return to the Edinburgh College of Art and Central Hall sites in 2023.”
