A new local book festival is coming this autumn - help needed!

[markandkate]

We'd like to bring a new literary festival to the local area later this year and we need a bit of help to raise some money. 

Funds raised on Kickstarter will help go towards covering some of the running costs. Obviously, the more we raise the bigger and better the festival will be!

The SE London BookFest is aiming to host 50+ authors over 4 weeks this November and to become an annual occurrence in the book festival calendar.

The vast majority of the events at the festival will have free tickets available and we've already got three local venues on board so there will be at least 12 events in the immediate local area.

Once all operating costs have been covered, any profit made by the festival will be donated to local foodbanks.

The festival has been set up by the team behind Peculiar Publications, who publish several newspapers in the local area including The Peckham Peculiar and The Dulwich Diverter.

Co-founder of Peculiar Publications, Mark McGinlay, who helped set up the SW11 Literary Festival and has worked in the book trade for more than 30 years, said:

“We’re really excited to bring a new book festival to south-east London and to highlight literature in the local area.

“It is now just over 10 years since we launched our very first publication and the festival shares the same aims of all our newspapers – to promote the brilliant diversity and sense of community that the area has to offer.

“Many of the events will showcase the impressive local literary talent and give wider attention to some exciting new writers.

“To ensure the festival takes place, we will need to get some funding. We’re very confident we can achieve this over the coming weeks. If you are able to contribute financially to our Kickstarter campaign, this will help us get towards our funding target."

TO PLEDGE MONEY, PLEASE GO TO: https://tiny.cc/selbookfest

You can get updates by following the festival on both Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) here:

https://www.instagram.com/SELBookFest https://twitter.com/SELBookFest

For further information, please email [email protected] 
 

[markandkate]

Thank you to all the local people who have pledged money to this so far!  We've now raised 25% of the total with 28 days to go.

If you wish to make a pledge (in return for lots of rewards!), please go to: https://tiny.cc/selbookfest

Many thanks,

Mark and Kate

The SE London Book Fest

[markmc71]

Tickets for around 50% of the events at the inaugural SE London BookFest are now available (with more events to be confirmed soon). 
There are limited FREE tickets for each event so please do book ASAP if you want to come: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/thesoutheastlondonbookfest

[markmc71]

We’ve already sold 75% of tickets for all of the book festival events taking place this November! Some of the headline events at the larger venues still have limited FREE tickets available but please do book ASAP to avoid disappointment! Full info here: tiny.cc/seltickets 📚🎟️🎟️

[markmc71]

Please book ASAP for #selbookfest as 16 events have now sold out and many of the 16 remaining events only have a few tickets left! Events with FREE tickets still available include talks with Emma Barnett, Jimi Famurewa, The Flygerians & much more! Book here: tiny.cc/seltickets 
 

[markmc71]

The second #selbookfest is aiming to host 50+ authors over 4 weeks in autumn 2025.

All funds raised on Kickstarter will help go towards covering some of the running costs.

As well as all the planned public events, festival organisers also want high-profile authors to go into local schools and tell their stories to hundreds of local schoolchildren.
 
Just like for the inaugural festival, every event will have a percentage of free tickets available. 

All other tickets will be priced between £3-£5 and 50% of the proceeds from every paid-for ticket will be donated to local food banks.

For more info & to back the return of the festival, please go to: tiny.cc/selfunding

[markmc71]

The SE London BookFest still needs around 19% funding to reach the minimum crowdfunding target with just over 3 days to go. And it’s all or nothing on Kickstarter. Back the festival before 12 noon on Saturday: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/peckhampeculiar/the-se-london-bookfest-2025