Bdlogo Landscape No Strap 1

BIG DOG

Catch Up

If you'd like to catch up on Big DoG, our children's book festival, you'll now find all of the events on our YouTube channel. 

Catch Up
Hooked Banner 1

HOOKED

Catch Up

If you'd like to catch up on Hooked, our festival for young creatives, you'll now find all of the events on our YouTube channel. 

Catch Up
Big Bag Eshot

BIG BANG WEEK

Catch Up

If you'd like to catch up on Big Bang, you'll now find all of the events on our YouTube channel. Why not visit our Library and Blog for stargazing podcasts, interviews with speakers, Star Poets, and more. Helena Cochrane's astrophotography 'Where Stars Are Born' can be found in the Exhibitions section of our website. 

Catch Up
The Pleiades 210301 175843 1

BIG BANG WEEK

Audience Survey

Feedback about your experience of this year’s Big Bang is important to help us grow and develop for the future. Please let us know what you thought of our first digital Big Bang Week by completing this online form. 

Audience Survey
0K4A0793 200409 174818

HOW TO WATCH OUR EVENTS

Facts and FAQs

Find information here about how to watch our events and other questions.

READ
Ae4I0697Des

HOW TO DONATE

We need you

Normally, more than half our event income comes from ticket sales. Find out how you can support us this year.

READ
Visit our online bookshop

Our online bookshop stocks all the titles from our current and recent online programmes, bestsellers and new publications.  You'll also find our exclusive Book Bond range along with Vintage Bookshop Air from Scotland's National Book Town and the chance to order any new title we don't stock to have delivered to your door within 3 working days (subject to availability). Each sale helps support the work of Wigtown Book Festival.

Browse the Bookshop
No 11 Main Street, the Wigtown Festival Bookshop

Wigtown Wednesdays

Our regular series of author talks

#WigtownWednesdays

#WigtownWednesdays | Gary Taubes ~ 14 Apr 2021

31 Mar 2021
The award-winning science and health journalist and author of The Case Against Sugar provides an exposé of the bad science behind conventional weight loss advice and a definitive argument in favour of low-carb-high-fat eating.
READ
#WigtownWednesdays

#WigtownWednesdays | Samira Shackle ~ 31 Mar 2021

12 Feb 2021
In her powerful and fast-paced debut, Samira Shackle reveals the complex and fascinating city of Karachi as it is experienced through the lives of its inhabitants.
READ
#WigtownWednesdays

#WigtownWednesdays | Gavin Esler ~ 17 Mar 2021

18 Jan 2021
Journalist Gavin Esler discusses his latest book, How Britain Ends: English Nationalism and the Rebirth of Four Nations.
READ

Featured content

podcast

Podcast Episode 44

Inklings with 404 Ink

8 Apr 2021
We go behind the scenes with publishers 404 Ink and their forthcoming new non-fiction series, Inklings.
READ
Workshops

Writers’ Gathering D&G goes online

1 Apr 2021
Writers’ Gathering D&G, our annual conference for writers, is going online this year on 14-16 May with a lively mix of Zoom workshops, a live-streamed panel discussion, an open mic night, and more.
READ
listen

Podcast Episode 43

Steven Lovatt

24 Mar 2021
Sometimes a book comes along that marries meaning, moment and enthusiasm with such force and beauty that it stops you in your tracks. Steven Lovatt’s Birdsong in a Time of Silence is such a book.
READ
Events

Big DoG 22-27 March

6 Mar 2021
We are delighted to launch this year's Big DoG Children's Book Festival, which is packed with online events from authors, storytellers and illustrators.
READ

5 Questions

Alan McClure

13 Mar 2021
Alan McClure joins us to answer five questions ahead of his Hooked event this Sunday.
READ
Events

Hooked 10-14 March

6 Mar 2021
Hooked is a festival of creative collaboration with writers, illustrators, visual artists and performers offering a series of workshops for young people.
READ
Big Bang

Star Poets | Annie Wright

7 Mar 2021
The penultimate in a series of poems from Dumfries & Galloway inspired by our dark skies. Curated by Hugh McMillan.
READ
audio

Audio | Big Bang Stargazing: Orion and the Seven Sisters

Elizabeth Tindal

6 Mar 2021
In the last of her stargazing podcasts, Biosphere Dark Sky Ranger Elizabeth Tindal talks to us more about Orion and the story of the Seven Sisters.
READ

Sensory Stories and Rhymes

Ailie Finlay and Kate Leiper

17 Nov 2020
A series of sensory stories and rhymes developed by storyteller Ailie Finlay and illustrated by Kate Leiper. New stories and resources released monthly November-April.
READ
Southlight Magazine 2020 - cover image. 1970s photograph of man with horses

Southlight

The latest edition of the Dumfries & Galloway new-writing magazine

Download Southlight (.pdf)
Galloway landscape - dry stane wall, hills and pasture
We need you

Wigtown Festival Company is commited to engaging new and existing audiences throughout the current crisis. Please consider donating to support our work

Donate

Find us in Wigtown, Scotland’s National Book Town

Designated Scotland's National Book Town in 1998 - by an international panel - Wigtown is home to a community of booksellers and literary events.

Wigtown: Scotland's National Book Town. Road signage on a grassy verge
Wigtown Book Town

A community regenerated through books

Read more
A browser outside The Bookshop on Wigtown's main street
Bookshops

Wigtown is home to more than a dozen bookshops

Read more
A panel event during Wigtown Book Festival
History of the Festival

We celebrated with our 20th Festival in 2018

Read More

More than just a festival: what we do

Since the first Wigtown Book Festival in 1999, we have expanded to become an energetic arts organisation working through the year to deliver a programme of literature development activities in the Dumfries & Galloway region of south-west Scotland.

Read more about our projects
Interior of The Bookshop, Wigtown. Armchair by fireplace, bookshelves
The sort of festival people become possessive about.

The Guardian