16th February 2026

 

Alderney’s popular literary festival cancelled

 

Travel uncertainty and spiralling costs have been cited for the cancellation of this year’s Alderney Literary Festival, which for over 10 years has won international acclaim for bringing together leading historical authors and historians.

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“This has been a difficult decision to make,” said Isabel Picornell, founder of the festival which has been running annually since 2014, with the one exception of 2021 during the Covid lockdown.

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“The problem is we have reached the stage where it is not possible to get the guest authors and professional support staff, as well as our regular festivalgoers with 80% coming from off-island, here on schedule,” she added.

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“We have many world-renowned authors wanting to come to Alderney, along with regular visitors from overseas, including Guernsey and Jersey, so this news will disappoint a lot of people.”

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Furthermore, uncertainty around the future of Alderney’s runway means that the 2027 Festival could suffer the same fate because it is not known when, or even if, the airport will close for the essential work to take place.

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Traditionally, the festival has been deliberately scheduled for the shoulder months to bring people to Alderney when there are fewer tourists. However, flight frequency is reduced during those months.

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The Literary Trust is hoping to organise more single-author events as an alternative, such as the visit of leading biographer Andrew Lownie who will be launching the updated edition of his biography of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, on May 30th.

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Ends.

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