Bath Festival

Bath is a city in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England and a World Heritage Site. It is known for its Roman-built baths as well as a series of annual cultural festivals which attract thousands of attendees from all over UK and abroad. The city’s flagship festival is the Bath Festival, a ten-day multi-arts festival that brings the streets of Bath to life each spring, celebrating the city with literature and music at heart.

The city of Bath used to host two famous cultural festivals: the Bath International Music Festival founded in 1948 and the Bath Literature Festival established in 1995. Each of them was known for its high-quality programming. The Literature Festival was held in February or March while the Music Festival took place in late May or early June. In November 2016, the two festivals were merged together to form the Bath Festival.

The program of the Bath Festival is still centered around music and literature. It includes events and activities that were featured at the Bath Literature and Bath International Music Festival such as classical, jazz and folk music concerts, literary readings, meetings with authors, debates, workshops, and more. Its program also includes events dedicated to poetry, science, history and politics as well as blends of different arts in all imaginable combinations.

The organizers preserved one of the signature events of the Bath International Music Festival, Party in the City. Party in the City is a series of free concerts held in a variety of venues across the cities featuring over 2,000 performers and more than 20,000 attendees. Besides, the Bath Festival hosts exciting year round learning and participation opportunities for young people.

James Waters, David Jones and Alex Clark became the first artistic directors of the bath festival. Clark is a literary journalist and editor who frequently contributes to The Times Literary Supplement, The Observer and The Guardian. She has been on the jury for the Booker Price as well as chaired leading literary events. Jones and Waters are musical experts and leading figures in the music industry.

The organizers also continue to produce the Bath Children’s Literature Festival which remains a separate event and welcomes young book lovers each fall. The city of Bath also hosts the Bath Fringe Festival, an annual open access arts festival noted for a more relaxed atmosphere and less strict approach to selecting acts as compared to traditional performing arts festivals.