The Woodstock Bookshop Festival
Friday 1 May to Sunday 3 May 2026
The May Bank Holiday weekend celebrates the second year of the Woodstock Bookshop Festival. Run by bookshop staff and local volunteers, the festival in its current format is a vibrant mix of fiction, poetry, science, the arts, family-friendly events, and superb music. Events take place in a variety of town-centre venues, including our splendid Town Hall, the Oxfordshire Museum, Hampers Delicatessen, St Mary Magdalene Church and St Hugh’s Centre. The team at The Woodstock Bookshop are grateful to all these neighbours for their support, as well as to everyone in the local community who has helped with planning, organising and taking part. We are excited to be offering a packed programme of cultural and intellectual events and can’t wait to share them with festival-goers from near and far. We look forward to welcoming you in May!
Please see below for more information on individual events and to book tickets.
Poetry in the Café
Welcome to an evening of poetry led by award-winning poet, Esther Lay. Esther is the rector of Wootton, Glympton and Kiddington parishes. She will perform her own poetry and lead an Open Mic Poetry Session introducing poets, including widely published London-based poet Jo Bratten. There will also be time for anyone who wishes to perform their own favourite poem.
Tickets £10 (includes a glass of wine or a soft drink)
Festival Weekend tickets £30
Tickets available from 1 March 2026 from the shop or online from www.ticketsource.co.uk/woodstockbookshopor see below
No booking fee on e-tickets
Children’s Festival
Join us for a morning of stories, activities, literary crafting and fun. Beloved children’s author Anna Kemp will read from some of her best-selling books. Local author Denise Beaumont will run craft activities. For slightly older children, join authors Gerard Lewis and Lizzie Shannon-Little in the secret corner to hear The Tale of the Propeller Man and other stories.
Tickets £5 per family
Free parking
Tickets available from 1 March 2026 from the shop or online from www.ticketsource.co.uk/woodstockbookshop or see below
No booking fee on e-tickets
Science Festival
Professor Jon Doye (University of Oxford) will speak on S-layers, 2-dimensional protein crystals that encapsulate archaeal and bacterial cells and show an intriguing resemblance to Islamic mosaics. Dr Ilia Leitch (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew) will speak about plants with giant genomes and why they have them. Professor Yujia Zhang (EPFL, Lausanne) will describe artificial bioiontronic devices for integration with physiological systems to alleviate life-threatening conditions of the heart and brain. Sadly, Professor Ian Goldin can no longer join us and the fourth speaker is yet to be confirmed.
Tickets £10 (includes a glass of wine or a soft drink)
Festival Weekend tickets £30
Tickets available from 1 March 2026 from the shop or online from www.ticketsource.co.uk/woodstockbookshop or see below
No booking fee on e-tickets
A Woodstock Evening of Crime and Wine
Spend an evening with 3 Oxford Crime writers as they discuss their approaches to writing about crime in one of the most famous cities of crime fiction. Cara Hunter’s best-selling crime series based in Oxford features DI Adam Fawley and has been a huge success worldwide. Simon Mason is a celebrated writer of juvenile (YA Garvie Smith Mysteries) and adult (DI Wilkins series) crime fiction. The DI Wilkins books are set in modern Oxford. Anna Beer’s first crime novel, Death of an Englishman, is set against the backdrop of Oxford’s colleges.
Tickets £10 (includes a glass of wine or a soft drink)
Festival Weekend tickets £30
Tickets available from 1 March 2026 from the shop or online from www.ticketsource.co.uk/woodstockbookshop or see below
No booking fee on e-tickets
Oxford School of Drama & Literary Discussions with Melanie and Ross King
Join us as the talented young actors from the Oxford School of Drama remind us that words have the power to spark imagination and transport us to places we’ve never been. Following the actors will be interviews with distinguished local authors Melanie King, interviewed by Linda Glees (Chair of Woodstock Literature Society), and Ross King, who will be talking to broadcaster David Freeman.
Tickets £10 (includes tea & cake)
Festival Weekend tickets £30
Tickets available from 1 March 2026 from the shop or online from www.ticketsource.co.uk/woodstockbookshop or see below
No booking fee on e-tickets
Music in St Mary Magdalene
Maria Razumovskaya will perform Schubert. She will talk about the pieces she will play and will point us to literary work that has discussed this. Razumovskaya is a professor and Research Fellow at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She is also a professor and Director of Musical Performance & Performance Studies at the University of Oxford.
Tickets £10 (includes a glass of wine or a soft drink)
Festival Weekend tickets £30
Tickets available from 1 March 2026 from the shop or online from www.ticketsource.co.uk/woodstockbookshop or see below
No booking fee on e-tickets
