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History of the Festival

2023 will be our 25th festival

A ten day literary celebration in Scotland's National Book Town

Wigtown is a traditional market town, set in the beautiful countryside of Dumfries & Galloway, south-west Scotland. It is also Scotland's National Book Town, a designation that reflects its dozen or so secondhand bookshops and annual literary festival.

 

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The Festival

Founded in 1999, the 10-day Wigtown Book Festival is now one of the UK's best-loved literary events and this year has more than 200 events and activities for all ages, including music, theatre, food and visual arts.

Awards

The festival, which has won a ScottishPower Foundation Award for Community Engagement, Sunday Herald Scottish Culture Awards 2018 Cultural Event of the Year, Thistle Award for tourism, the Arts & Business (Scotland) Community Award and a Creative Places Award, welcomes writers from far and wide. It also celebrates the rich history and landscape of Galloway.

About us

In 2007, Wigtown Book Festival became a charity. It is run by a small professional staff assisted by more than 100 volunteers.

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One of the best autumn festivals in the world.

The Telegraph

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It may only have a population of 1000, but Wigtown doesn’t just punch above its weight when it comes to attracting big-name authors to its annual book festival, it punches above pretty much everybody else’s weight, too.

Roger Cox, The Scotsman

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