The Bath Festival Announces 2022 Line-up

The Bath Festival today announces its 2022 line-up which is full of innovation and 'you saw it here first' moments. This world-renowned festival celebrating books and music in a beautiful city will run from Friday 13 May to Saturday 21 May 2022.

For fans of poetry, prose, and hard-hitting conversations, this year's literary line-up delivers. From discussions ranging from international fiction and post-colonial legacies with Tanzanian-born Nobel Prize winner, Abdulrazak Gurnah, and Turkish-British novelist and activist, Elif Shafak, to a look at male power and privilege, life in Britain's all-male boarding schools and its effect on the psyche of the men who often end up leading the country, with broadcaster Justin Webb (The Gift of a Radio) author Richard Beard (Sad Little Men) and broadcaster Mark Lawson, the literary programme puts hard-hitting topics centre stage.

Moving on from male elitism to the menopause, audiences this year are in with the chance of an exclusive preview of Davina McCall's brand-new book Menopausing with Davina herself, ahead of its official publication. In another first PJ Harvey presents her first ever full-length book, Orlam, in a spoken word event in conversation with renowned local author Max Porter. Continuing its tradition of supporting debut voices, Julia Armfield, Susan Stokes-Chapman, Kasim Ali, Jendella Benson, and Lizzie Damilola Blackburn will also appear as part of this year's stellar line-up. For more, see literary highlights below.

Featuring one of only two concerts to be performed in the UK this summer by renowned US pianist Jeremy Denk, who will play Bach's Well Tempered Clavier and talk about his memoir, Every Good Boy Does Fine in an event he has curated especially for The Bath Festival, this year's musical line-up is equally impressive. From the resident festival chamber orchestra, The Bath Festival Orchestra performing beside the waters of the Roman Baths, to the band Public Service Broadcasting bringing their own brand of original music and intriguing stage performance to The Forum, a former Art Deco cinema, and pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason performing as part of the Rising Classical stars series in the historic Holburne Museum, there is something for everyone set against some of the city's most iconic, and unusual, backdrops.

Another key highlight epitomising the innovative nature of this year's festival, is an intimate, intense theatrical experience created around a performance of La Voix Humaine, a 20th century opera classic, which will take place up close and personal in an apartment in Bath. This is a co-production between the Wales Millennium Centre and Welsh National Opera and the performer is Claire Booth. Folk fans are also in for a treat as seven-time winner at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, Karine Polwart, brings her latest project, collaboration with renowned jazz/folk pianist Dave Milligan, to the stage. For more musical highlights see below.

In a packed festival programme, going into more venues than ever before, many of the events involve the careful pairing of authors and musicians to create experiences that will be unique to Bath. Following the lockdowns of the pandemic Bath Festival has emerged with a strong focus on the importance of live arts events and performance as the lifeblood of what it can offer audiences.

Highlights of this year's wide-ranging programme can be found below:

Literary highlights

• A series of thoughtfully curated events created for The Bath Festival by Arifa Akbar, author of an acclaimed memoir Consumed and The Guardian's chief theatre critic. This collection will include a unique literary moment, as Tanzanian-born Nobel Prize winner, Abdulrazak Gurnah, and the eminent Turkish-British novelist and activist, Elif Shafak come together to talk about their work and the themes of home, Britishness, international fiction and post-colonial legacies.
• Much-loved TV presenter Davina McCall tackles the once taboo subject of the menopause as she champions women's health in her new book Menopausing. Bath audiences will get an exclusive preview of the book ahead of its official publication.
• Environmental campaigner George Monbiot will be talking to writer Max Porter about Regenesis, his vision of a new future for farming, food and humanity.
• The singer PJ Harvey presents Orlam, her new work, in a spoken word event in conversation with renowned local author Max Porter. She reveals herself as a gifted poet who has written the first full-length book in the Dorset dialect for many decades.
• Broadcaster Justin Webb (The Gift of a Radio) and author Richard Beard (Sad Little Men) will join broadcaster Mark Lawson, to discuss male power and privilege, life in Britain's elite all-male boarding schools and its effect on the psyche of the men who often end up leading the country.
• The unofficial Poet Laureate of Twitter, Brian Bilston shares poetry from his book Alexa, What Is There To Know About Love? which features poems about reading and literature and the subject causing many of us heartbreak - politics.
• Join two of the best contemporary novelists in conversation. Claire Fuller (Unsettled Ground) won the Costa Award in 2021 and award-winning Sarah Moss's latest novel, The Fell, asks probing questions about what the world has become since March 2020.
• Historian and presenter David Olusoga and geneticist and author Adam Rutherford, author of Control: the Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics, will be in what promises to be a stimulating discussion.
• Women on Top is an evening of life-affirming comedy in the company of five furiously funny women. Anna Whitehouse (Underbelly) hosts Lucy Beaumont (Drinking Custard), Isy Suttie (Jane is Trying), Jessica Jones (Own It) and Helen Thorn (Get Divorced, Be Happy).
• Two trailblazers come together to talk about identity, imagination and human rights. Jay Bernard, Ted Hughes Award winning poet (Surge), performs their spoken word poetry and talks to Shon Faye, a former lawyer and bestselling author (The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice). The event showcases the live literary platform, Speaking Volumes, which supports under-represented voices.

Music highlights

• A concert and talk by US pianist Jeremy Denk - The Bath Festival is one of only two UK dates he is playing this summer. He will be playing Bach's Well Tempered Clavier and talking about his memoir, Every Good Boy Does Fine in an event he has curated especially for The Bath Festival.
• The Bath Festival Orchestra, re-launched during the pandemic to give a platform to young musicians, will be giving a one-off performance beside the waters of the Roman Baths, playing an appropriately water-themed programme inspired by the sea.
• Colin Currie, acclaimed as the world's most daring percussionist, will be filling Bath Abbey with sound as the Colin Currie Group and Synergy Vocals put on a thunderous live performance.
• The band Public Service Broadcasting, favourites on the festival circuit, will bring their own brand of original music and intriguing stage performance to The Forum, a former Art Deco cinema.
• The Bath Festival audience has taken the prodigiously talented Kanneh-Mason family to its heart and this year will welcome back pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, who will perform in the historic Holburne Museum.
• Karine Polwart (seven-time winner at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards) brings her latest project, collaboration with renowned jazz/folk pianist Dave Milligan, to this year's fetsival. Piano and voice isn't a combination you hear often in the folk idiom, and audiences can expect an intimate event featuring a stripped-back collection of songs performed entirely with voice and grand piano.

One of a kind - festival highlights

• An intimate, intense theatrical experience has been created in a performance of La Voix Humaine, a 20th century opera classic, which will take place up close and personal in an apartment in Bath. This is a co-production between the Wales Millennium Centre and Welsh National Opera and the performer is Claire Booth.
• Comedian Marcus Brigstocke will be dissecting the Sunday papers, joined by author and campaigner Dr Rachel Clarke, Channel 4 News journalist Symeon Brown and comedian Rachel Parris for a brunch time event.
• The Bath Festival walks are a regular sell-out and this year's specially commissioned trio of guided tours are sure to attract interest. Choose from the Bath Blitz walk, which revisits the WW2 bombing raids of 1942, a behind-the-scenes look at the city as a screen location and a walk which explored Bath's evolution as one of the great spa towns of Europe.
• Two major publishing houses, Penguin and Picador, are to host proof parties, previewing as yet unpublished works to a small gathering, with the chance to take home proof copies of books ahead of their publication.

The Bath Festival 2022 also features appearances by Ali Smith, Martin Bell, Clover Stroud, Mark Haddon, Monica Ali, Nicholas Crane, Tracy Borman, Phil Wang, Karine Polwart with David Milligan, the Jess Gillam Ensemble, the Tallis Scholars, Sean Shibe, Torrey Peters, James Runcie, Daisy Buchanan, Marian Keyes, Viv Groskop, Nina Stibbe, Lucy Mangan, Cathy Rentzenbrink, Stacey Halls and many, many more.

Arifa Akbar, guest curator at this year's festival, said: "It was truly a delight and an honour to be invited to guest curate a strand at the Bath Festival this year. I have had a long working relationship with the festival and this curation feels all the more special in the light of that history . . . I have been an audience member, often rapt or moved, and always walking away inspired. In former incarnations as journalist, moderator, trustee and punter, I picked up a keen sense of excitement the programme unfailingly sparked in the room. Now I am curating a strand of five events to run across the opening weekend, and I hope they will spark just as much excitement in you. "

A city-wide celebration

The Bath Festival opens with the traditional Party in the City on Friday 13 May, offering dozens of free live music events in city venues. This evening of free music attracts thousands of visitors who enjoy everything from choirs singing in churches, to samba on the streets, punk rock in pubs and the stars of the local music scene playing on stages in local parks.

Look out for innovative contemporary jazz ensemble Empirical who have carved out a name by taking audiences by surprise as they perform pop-up gigs in Tube stations and shopping centres. Look out for them in one of Bath's empty shops!

For the first time a new Festival Hub will be set up in historic Queen Square over the first weekend of the festival. This will provide a welcoming gathering space with music, food and drink, hands-on activities for families, live entertainment and surprise performances.

The Bath Festival continues to make the most of the city's historic buildings as venues, including Bath Abbey, The Assembly Rooms and the former Art Deco cinema The Forum. But this year seek out different events at Komedia, known for as band and comedy venue, the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institute, hosting a series of eclectic talks and the official festival bookseller, Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights will also be hosting a series of book events in store in John Street. Festival-goers will also find events at Persephone Books in George Street, at Walcot House and in the festival's intimate Literature Lounge which will be set up in Alfred Street. Dorothy House Hospice is also hosting book events at its charity shop in Broad Street as part of the festival.

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