The Next Chapter
Our 2026-30 Strategy
Who We Are
Cheltenham Festivals is a values-driven charity building a future where the arts and sciences are diverse, inclusive and pioneering and which contribute to the positive health and well-being of community and society at large.
Our charity is best known for convening thinkers, writers, musicians, researchers and composers in Cheltenham through our sector-leading Jazz, Science, Music and Literature Festivals. These are enjoyed by 300,000 adults, young people, families, and school children from Gloucestershire and beyond.
The last ten years have represented a new chapter in our story. Having secured the scale and quality of the Festivals, we have focused on making them more inclusive and accessible for artists and audiences. We have also built high-impact schools and community programmes which have achieved a far wider and deeper reach.
Now is the time to launch the Next Chapter and our strategy for 2026–2030.
The Next Chapter is a 5-year commitment to drive forward our unique dual focus of innovative genre-based Festivals, alongside partnership-working and inclusive community engagement across the UK and the world. 3
Context
We are living through a period of significant social, economic and technological change. Many people are facing increasing pressure in their daily lives, from financial insecurity and declining wellbeing to growing loneliness and disconnection. At the same time, public discourse has become more polarised, trust in institutions and information is being challenged, and many communities feel unheard or excluded from cultural and civic life.
Across society, there is a growing need for spaces where people can come together, encounter new perspectives, feel a sense of belonging and engage meaningfully with the world around them. Cultural engagement has the extraordinary power to improve health and wellbeing, strengthen communities and inspire new ways of thinking, brings people together, ignites the imagination, and creates opportunities for dialogue, understanding, and change.
Engagement with arts and culture is worth £8billion per year in NHS cost reduction due to the health and wellbeing benefits
In this context, culture matters deeply. It helps us understand ourselves and each other and enables people and communities to imagine and shape better futures together.
The GVA of the Creative Industries was estimated at £123.03bn (or 5.37% of total UK GVA) between Jan – Dec 2024
Way Forward
Culture can and should play a leading role in shaping a more hopeful, inclusive and sustainable future. It helps people imagine new possibilities, while creating opportunities for collaboration, understanding and collective action.
Through this strategy, we will deepen our commitment to young people, expand how we work with underserved communities, and strengthen the partnerships that enable creativity to drive meaningful change. Through bold programming, shared learning and deeper collaboration, we will continue using culture to bring joy, connect communities and inspire change.
Our Heritage
Cheltenham Festivals has a rich 80-year history of bringing joy and leading the way in the cultural sector. Cheltenham Music Festival was started in the immediate aftermath of World War II to highlight and commission new British music, and Cheltenham Literature Festival’s inception in October 1949 makes it the world’s first Literature Festival.
The Jazz and Science Festivals followed, together with the development of a year-round learning and participation programme which elevated the charity from a Festival organisation to a national charity in terms of its reach and social impact.
Now we turn the page on the next chapter, applying our learnings to the challenges of the present to bring joy to larger, more diverse audiences, and to work collaboratively to effect positive change within and beyond the cultural sector.
Our Mission Today Our Vision for Tomorrow
Our mission today is to bring joy, spark curiosity, connect communities and inspire change.
Through our Festivals, learning and participation programmes and collaborative partnerships we are working to change the way that people across the UK perceive and experience culture.
We believe that culture is for everyone, indeed it is a human right. And yet we know that various physical, economic and emotional barriers mean that it is not accessible or inclusive for many people, either as consumers or creators.
Through our work, we build supportive environments around young people and underserved communities so that participation in culture becomes viable, relevant and part of everyday life, with all its ensuing benefits.
At Cheltenham Festivals we see a future where everyone can experience and create culture. Where everyone can live healthy, fulfilled lives through engagement in a rich and diverse cultural sector.
We know that our strategy does not exist in isolation. We are part of a wider ecology which includes people of all ages across our local community and the music, STEAM and publishing industries. Our strategy is a response to challenges across these sectors, and it is in our coming together that we can rise to them.
If you share our vision, or you have expertise and resources which could support this work, please get in touch. We are always interested in exploring new partnerships and connections.
Our Next Chapter
Our strategy is centred around four goals and four enablers, to make the greatest impact possible. The following pages provide more detail on how we will make that happen.
Our goals link closely to our mission: to bring joy and spark curiosity, connect communities and inspire change.
Our enablers are the essential foundations on which the charity functions: people, data and communications.
Organisational resilience is both a goal and an enabler.
I am so proud to be the president of Cheltenham Festivals, an arts charity that has championed British culture for over 80 years. Creating world-class events, it continues to give a voice to young talent, working alongside its communities and developing national outreach programmes.
Dame Judi Dench
Our Goals
Bring joy and spark curiosity Connect communities
We will grow and diversify our audiences and beneficiaries so that more people have access to culture which increases wellbeing, prosperity and health.
Approach
Champion young voices and the issues that matter to them through platforms and programmes including VOICEBOX.
Work with industry partners to re-imagine Cheltenham Science Festival for an adult audience.
Continue to engage young people in learning programmes that are aligned to societal needs, and reflect contemporary and future-facing issues.
Impact
Grow our 18-30s audiences and become recognised as a leading UK arts and culture organisation for young people and emerging talent.
Cheltenham Science Festival becomes a destination, known equally for its night-time adult offering as its vibrant family and schools programme.
Sustain our work with all pupils in areas of high economic deprivation and engage every SEND school and alternative education provider in Gloucestershire.
We will be welcoming and relevant to local underserved people in Cheltenham so that cultural engagement and its associate benefits are increased.
Approach
Introduce family reading groups in underserved local neighbourhoods.
Build inclusive pathways into participation, volunteering, creative practice and leadership.
Commission external research on the positive impact of Cheltenham Festivals on the community.
Impact
Double the engagement of residents from the most economically deprived areas of Cheltenham.
A more diverse volunteer community, strengthened youth voice and increased visibility of local people as contributors.
Evidence the positive impact of cultural participation for local communities.
Inspire change
We will collaborate to provide sector-leading content, thought-leadership, and systemic change because innovative, cross-sector working is needed to create a positive and sustainable future.
Approach
In partnership, commission new ways of elevating the live experience of culture through the integration of emerging technologies.
Super-charge our monitoring and evaluation so that we are better able to evidence and communicate our social impact.
Build our external voice and advocacy in our areas of specialism: access & inclusion, ethical practices, schools and community engagement.
Impact
We champion and inform the future of how people experience culture in the UK.
We advocate at a national level for the value of culture to community.
We contribute to the elevation of culture within the national agenda.
Build resilience
We will have firm foundations which enable us to act ethically, safely and efficiently so that we navigate uncertainty and grow steadily and sustainably into the future.
Approach
Further maximise and diversify our income streams.
Enlist specialist advice to keep ahead of best practice in security and safety.
Continuously improve carbon-reduction through our practice and programming.
Impact
Grow our financial reserves to build resilience and achieve our strategic ambitions.
Deliver best practice in terms of risk management.
Continue to be early-adopters of best practice including the introduction of a blended energy solution.
Our Enablers
Build resilience
We will have firm foundations which enable us to act ethically, safely and efficiently so that we navigate uncertainty and grow steadily and sustainably into the future.
Great place to work
Everyone in the charity understands what is expected of them, has a voice, a safe environment to do their very best work; with their careers and personal development invested in.
Data drives growth
Everyone in the charity is empowered to access and interrogate relevant, clean data sets to inform good decisions which build the capability, capacity and outcomes of the organisation.
Stream-lined communications
Everyone in the charity communicates with clarity and consistency across all touchpoints so that there is alignment between what we say, the impact we create, and how we are perceived.
Our Future in Numbers
50% of our Festival events will be free 80,000 children and young people each year will experience culture through our programmes
£
We will raise £37 million to invest back into the cultural economy
20%+ of speakers and artists on our stages are representative of the global majority
Our Values in Action
We use these principles to inform our decisions, create our programmes and shape how we work together and with our partners.
Collaboration
Reflected in
Working with and within communities, valuing trusted local spaces and long-term partnerships.
Partnering for the long-term with local, national and global organisations which share our values and support our purpose.
Inclusion Innovation Integrity Sustainability
Reflected in
Designing experiences in consultation that actively reassure, orientate and include; changing systems, language and environments.
Taking positive action because the people who are visible on our stages, in our imagery and across our leadership shapes who feels welcome.
Reflected in
Forming cross-sector partnerships which open up new ways of thinking and commissioning.
Utilising consultation and feedback loops so that we continuously learn and improve.
Reflected in
Ensuring a match between what we say and what we do internally and externally.
Demonstrating open, transparent communication at all levels.
Reflected in
Planning for long-term solutions in favour of short-term fixes.
Reducing, reusing and recycling wherever possible.
