The Chipping Norton Festival of Art & Literature

We hope to create the 1st Chipping Norton Festival of Art & Literature in 2026, and we welcome any, and all help or leadership in doing so.

Previously there was a literary festival which focussed the whole town on books and reading for a weekend, and we hope to recreate that passion!

The first festival is planned to take place from June 17 -21 2026, to coincide with the solstice.

We plan to include a full retrospective of the films of Tarkovsky, a competition for the best shop window, a literary quiz, artist's walks, poetry in the local Hook Norton brewery, hopefully a festival campsite in a nearby field with a bonfire and an outdoor screening of Carry On Camping presented by the actor Christopher Ecclestone, a performance art programme, underwater poetry at the Lido (where Jeremy Clarkson famously submerged a Rolls Royce), a Midsummer's eve literary fancy dress ball in the Humphrey Repton designed Town Hall, with a quartet followed by a dj exclusively playing records recorded in the Chipping Norton Recording Studios. The following morning those who wish can then make the traditional 90 minute walk to the Rollright Stones, the local megalithic Circle, and join the Solstice celebrations for dawn at 03:42am and or the Solstice at 09:24am . The Hawkstone megalith is closer, and we would love to know who owns it.

We aspire to sell books, provide a free children’s programme, work with local schools to promote literacy, and are open to all offers of participation, leadership, help, or cooperation.