Festival Archive
Explore nearly two decades of Bloomsbury Festival — from our first 3-day celebration in 2006 to a month-long programme spanning 50+ venues.
Festival Archive
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2025
Bloomsbury Festival 2025
The Paths We Tread
17 - 19 October 2025
Our 2025 Festival weekend ran from 17 – 19 October with a busy weekend of music, performance, exhibitions walks, talks and family events.
The 2025 Festival also saw the culmination of our year-long Heritage Project Strange Doings in London – The Songs and Ballads of St Giles, which was supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
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2024
Bloomsbury Festival 2024
Human.Kind
18 – 27 October 2024
Our 2024 festival in October presented an exciting programme theatre, music, art, exhibitions, talks and walks, with over 100 events over 10 days.
The programme was presented by a multitude of partners coming together under the umbrella of the festival to celebrate the local area of Bloomsbury and its unique cultural life, and responding to our 2024 theme Human.Kind.
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2023
Bloomsbury Festival 2023
Grow
13 – 22 October 2023
Our 2023 festival in October presented an exciting programme theatre, music, art, exhibitions, talks and walks, with over 100 events over 10 days.
The programme was presented by a multitude of partners coming together under the umbrella of the festival to celebrate the local area of Bloomsbury and its unique cultural life, and responding to our 2023 theme Grow.
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2022
Bloomsbury Festival 2022
Breathe
14 – 23 October 2022
Our 2022 festival was inspired by the theme of Breathe, and included over 100 events across 10 days, ranging from hard-hitting creative reflections on the environment to quiet moments of mindfulness. Many were presented by emerging artists, writers and academics, others by established professionals, and some by the local community.
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2021
Bloomsbury Festival 2021
Shining Light
15 – 24 October 2021
Working with partners from across Bloomsbury’s diverse academic, professional and resident communities the Bloomsbury Festival 2021 theme was Shining Light on Bloomsbury’s people, places and creativity.
2021 enabled us to celebrate and illuminate Bloomsbury’s culture and communities, by making the people and places more visible in terms of the many cultures, their heritage, the creativity of artists and academics, and the historic places and buildings amongst which we live and work.
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2020
Bloomsbury Festival 2020
2020: Vision
15 - 25 October
Bloomsbury Festival 2020 took place from 16 – 25 October. Where possible we kept events live, but many were also available online either via our website or by a ticketed online link.
We tried to be imaginative about how we present our work, keeping the essence of the creative activity but allowing access online or on the street where possible. We were delighted to have a partner radio station Bloomsbury Radio.
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2019
Bloomsbury Festival 2019
Small Steps and Giant Leaps
11 – 20 October 2019
The 2019 Bloomsbury Festival took place from 11 – 20 October, with the theme, Small Steps and Giant Leaps, inspired by the 50th anniversary of the first landing on the moon.
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2018
Bloomsbury Festival 2018
Activists and Architects of Change
17 – 21 October 2018
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2016
Bloomsbury Festival 2016
Inspired by Language
19 - 23 October 2016