Port Eliot Festival in the press
The Port Eliot Festival offers you an experience like no other – but don’t just take our word for it! Here’s some of the praise from the press and festival performers we’ve received in recent years…
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“Hipper than Hay” – Condé Nast Traveller
“Port Eliot is by far the most enjoyable literary festival I have been to. It’s not just about books.” – Alexander Masters
“This hip lit fest has the intimacy of a weekend country house party…” – The Independent ABC magazine
“Field studies with an emphasis on fun… Fun is a word that comes up a lot at Port Eliot. The event has all the brains of a literary festival and all the soul of a music festival.” – Alice Fordham, The Times
“Until Port Eliot I haven’t had a festival to go to” – Martin Parr
“It’s gonna rock! But gently.” – Lauren Laverne, Grazia magazine
“This is the sort of literary festival where people drift into brightly striped tents, then, when they’ve heard enough, gather up their flip-flops and drift out again to lie in the sun; and the programme lists events until 2.30am – when, in the House of Fairytales, a psychedelic picnic began.” – The Guardian
“Most festivals now, literature festivals in particular, are high pressure and high profile. Port Eliot is a sort of upmarket pop festival… It’s fun… It’s nice for the kids. It’s a lovely place, it’s just very relaxing.”
– Hanif Kureishi
“The Glastonbury of literary festivals… best for wordsmiths with a hedonistic bent” – Living etc
“Those arriving for the first time will gasp at the magnificent campsite; a vast grassy pasture bordered by Lord St German’s stately home, an estuary and woodland… I can attest to the festival’s unconventionality… I’ll be back next year for certain, when I’ll be sure to pack my best party frock.” – Kathryn Miller, Fest of Both Worlds feature, Time Out magazine
“Thanks for a WONDERFUL festival - imaginative, relaxing, fun, inspiring and fresh…” – Simon Grant, The Tate Gallery
“The literary festival at Port Eliot feels as if it’s full of secrets. You wander through a door and find yourself in a walled garden. Someone is reading poetry. Keep walking and you come to a tent where 50 people are watching a movie. Round another corner and you’re in a café or watching a man with a guitar or looking over a huge field packed with tents or standing in a queue for the loos. I talked to someone yesterday who said that this festival feels more like a wedding or a party than a literary festival. There’s the same laidback atmosphere that you’d get at a party. There’s no sense of hierarchy. Strangers chat. The food and booze isn’t free, but it’s not exorbitant either. You can hurry across the small site, hearing a bunch of poets crack jokes in one tent or watching Martin Parr discuss his own photos in another, nipping from one to the other when your attention wanders. And just around every corner, there’s a secret waiting to be discovered.” – Josh Lacey, The Guardian’s Culture Vulture blog
“It’s such an extraordinary event – I love the informality, combined with real intelligence and wit. We loved Will Fiennes’s nature walk down the estuary, the Cloud Appreciation Society and the literary quiz – but most of all we enjoyed just drifting happily in and out of beautiful gardens, between events and between drinks. Please don’t change anything about it.” – Jonathan Heawood, English PEN
“I felt really honoured for the ICA to be a part of the Port Eliot Lit Fest [in 2007]. It felt especially creative and fresh this year: a lot of new faces on the performer front contributed but also superb production and amazing attention to detail.” – Natasha Plowright, ICA, London
