The Bookseller - Features - Festivals boom post-Covid but struggle with big names amid theatre tours

Literary festivals are beginning to flourish again post-Covid, organisers revealed to The Bookseller, but it is harder to attract famous authors as theatre-style tours boom in popularity. Fears around authors being bound to large venue tours is putting pressure on programmers' ability to offset costs, threatening the diversity of line-ups as well as the diversity of audiences and festivals' outreach work. There is also concern about the increased use of book-and-ticket bundling, preferred by many publishers to push sales, which can push ticket prices up beyond an accessible level for many visitors.