ILMINSTER LITERARY FESTIVAL 2025 CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
The ninth Ilminster Literary Festival was held from May 29[th] to June 5[th] , 2025. It proved to be our most successful Festival so far, with excellent feedback from speakers and audience members. In total, seven events were completely sold out. Although we enjoyed a significant increase in revenue from ticket sales compared with previous years, this was largely offset by additional speaker costs as we sought higher profile speakers, and our total costs exceeded income by some £1400.
2025 was a festival that really did offer something for everyone. Our audience members’ ages ranged from about 2 years all the way to 104 years!!!! I don’t think we will be able to better that for a long time as our decogenarian (if that is the right word) sadly passed away over the following twelve months.
For 2025 we decided to concentrate our events at Monks Yard, with only a couple of events in Ilminster Town Centre. This gave us huge dividends in terms of mounting the festival, as we no longer needed to move and erect large quantities of equipment and materials between different venues, which had become unsustainably onerous for the committee members and helpers involved. There was a downside in that the Monks Yard audio-visual equipment and sight lines had some limitations when we had a “Full House”, and we need to improve the customer experience for future festivals.
We again held our now traditional competitions for children – firstly the Children’s Writing Competition which attracted over 100 stories from local schools and individual children, with the Prize Giving held in Ilminster Library. Secondly the Children’s Poetry Recital Competition was held with heats taking place in many local schools. The Final was as usual held in Herne View School during the Festival week itself. We always marvel at the standard achieved by all these youngsters which bodes well for the future of English Literature!
Amicus Law again were Corporate Sponsors of the 2025 Festival, and this year they were joined by Perry’s Cider from Dowlish Wake, so we were able to present our speakers with a Taste of Somerset in the form of a flagon of local cider, much to the delight of our speakers (and audience members!). A big “thank you” to these Corporate Sponsors and to all our other sponsors, advertisers, Friends and helpers Without whom we would not be able to mount the Festival at all.
Finally, a very big “thank you” to our Trustees, Operations Committee members and especially our Festival Director Sue Collard for their unfailing support and hard work throughout the year which is so essential for staging a successful Festival.
Deryk Outram Chairman, ILF Trustees
8 July 2026
Ilminster Literary Festival – Registered Charity No: 1169618
----- Start of picture text -----
ILMINSTER LITERARY FESTIVAL 2025 - TREASURER'S REPORT
Charity No: 1169618
Our financial year runs from 1st January to 31st December. The 2025 Income & Expenditure Account is shown below.
We had a small negative income over expenditure over the period. By and large, a higher income from ticket sales
was offset by higher fees and expenses paid to speakers.
The total funds position is shown below.
Ken Cooper - Trustee & Hon. Treasurer
2025 Income and Expenditure Account
INCOME 2025 2024
Friends £1,329 £1,924
Sponsors/advertising £2,370 £2,295
Donations £1,178 * £177
Ticket sales £13,002 £8,247
Other £292 £527
£18,171 £13,170
EXPENDITURE 2025 2024
Venues £3,952 £2,825
Publicity £768 £605
Marketing £533 £868
Equipment £859 £0
Events £340 £0
Programmes £1,666 £1,009
Admin £349 £211
Donations £110 £0
Speakers £8,585 £3,889
Hospitality £382 £317
Services £1,621 £1,393
Other £462 £568
£19,628 £11,685
Inc. over Exp. -£1,457 £1,485
Bank opening balance £12,077
Closing bank balance £10,620
Petty cash £74
NatWest a/c £10,886
Total Funds £21,580 £22,970
Note: Includes £1,000 grant from Gooch Trust which is earmarked
for 2026 Childrens'' Writing Competition
----- End of picture text -----*
22/07/2026 14:53