Festival of the Accused – Day Pass

Reinventing and reclaiming the witch with Kirsty Logan, Juno Dawson, Malcolm Gaskill, Shahidha Bari, Marion Gibson, John Callow, Shami Chakrabarti, Marisa Carnesky, Ron Athey, Zoë Howe, the Witches of Scotland, Jenny Runacre, Amy Kingsmill and more.

This event will take place in the British Library Knowledge Centre. Some sessions will be simultaneously live streamed on the British Library platform. Tickets may be booked either to attend in person (physical) or to watch on our platform (online) either live or within 48 hours on catch up. Viewing links for the online version will be sent out shortly before the event.

The witch has long been a source of fear and revulsion but has become a symbol of feminine power, sexual liberty, indigenous knowledge and political rebellion.

The Festival of the Accused delves into the history of witchcraft and summons a host of writers and performers who praise the modern witch. It tells the true stories of those accused in the English Witch Trials, a violent reckoning that gripped the country for hundreds of years and affected thousands.

It also celebrates modern devotees of the craft, in all their strangeness and subtlety. From the authors of ‘WitchLit’ telling tales of powerful covens, to queer performance artists who draw inspiration from the occult.

The festival concludes with a spectacular twilight performance by artist Amy Kingsmill and a memorial reading by actor Jenny Runacre in the Library’s open-air amphitheatre, the Poets Circle.

A day pass gives you access to all sessions* and the Light Source Finale: Performance and Memorial Reading. Single session tickets are also available.

Signings and book sales in the foyer throughout. Bookstall provided by Newham Books. Specialist esoteric books, unusual titles and magical items by Treadwell’s Books.