Friends’ scheme

Our Friends scheme enables us to bring great writers, artists and conservationists to our beautiful coast.

Why we need your help:

Many of our excellent contributors come a long way to be with us. It is important to look after them and pay a fair fee. (Surprisingly, not all events do). Where literary festivals more often take place – near busy transport networks – audiences can more readily afford what culture costs. In rural North Norfolk, however, jobs are not the best paid and many people have retired. Put simply, a festival in Wells-next-the-sea costs more than it would in a city, while our ticket prices need to be kept lower. Your membership helps to plug this gap and so make our weekend possible.

A wonderful crowd of people joined as Friends in our first year. Thank you to all of you and welcome also to any newcomers! We hope to build a cultural community that can own, sustain and develop this festival into the future.

If you are already a Friend, please look out for a renewal email from us a year after you joined and subscribe then.

Your benefits:

For a donation of £25 for a single supporter and £40 for a couple, you will get:

14-day advance notice of the programme at the beginning of July
14-day priority booking for tickets and seating
10% discount on tickets
an invitation to the opening evening (Friday 3rd October) exhibition drinks
acknowledgement of your support: friends and donors will be listed (unless you ask not to be) in the festival programme

OR for £100 you can become a festival donor, helping to keep our bottom line above the waves. We are all volunteers who give our time for free, but we have many associated costs such as advertising and printing, which all add up.

A £250 contribution will make you a donor to our schools’ literacy programme. Last year we offered three free events to three local schools, inspiring children by sitting them in front of a real live author. A gift of £250 will cover either the cost of an author talk or a free book for every child in the audience.

One or two donors generously gave us £1000 or more last year. This was transformative and we were thrilled to invite them to join our writers’ dinner by way of a thank you. Please email vicky@literatureandlandscape.org if you would be interested in this level of support, either generally or with a specific purpose in mind. We have many ideas!

Whatever you are able to give is enormously appreciated. Every contribution counts. Thank you.