After two decades at the heart of one of the UK’s best loved literary gatherings, Adrian Turpin is to step down as the Creative and Strategic Director of Wigtown Book Festival, following this autumn’s event.
Adrian first worked on the festival, which takes place in Scotland’s National Book Town in Dumfries & Galloway, as a volunteer in 2006.
During his tenure, he has overseen a programme of expansion that saw the festival move from three days to 10, quadrupling its audience to more than 20,000 and generating £4.2 million a year for the region. In 2017, he was awarded an OBE for services to literature and the economy of Dumfries & Galloway.
A vocal advocate for the role culture can play in defining places and bringing social and economic benefits to communities, in recent years he has played a leading role in helping the festival face the challenges of COVID 19, the cost-of-living crisis and public spending cuts.
In November 2024, the festival won Outstanding Cultural Event or Festival at Scotland’s national event awards, The Thistles, while this January it secured a funding-deal worth £388,000 over three years from Creative Scotland.
Adrian Turpin said: “This autumn’s festival will be my 20th at Wigtown, a run I’d have never imagined when I programmed my first event in 2006.
“The past year has been a huge one for the organisation securing vital three-year support from Creative Scotland, acquiring a permanent new home, and winning the national Thistle Award for Scotland’s Outstanding Cultural Event or Festival. After the long haul of rebuilding audiences following the pandemic, it feels like a very natural moment to pass on the baton, and I’m excited about new creative opportunities ahead. “Wigtown has given me so much. It’s been a privilege to be part of this unique event and to get to know so many people in this extraordinary community.
“I would like to thank colleagues past and present, volunteers, writers, booksellers and audiences – everyone who has made the festival and Scotland’s Book Town so vibrant and welcoming. With this level of collective support, I’ve no doubt the festival will continue to inspire, surprise and enrich people’s lives.”
Cathy Agnew, Chair of the Wigtown Festival Company, said: “The festival has grown enormously in terms of size, audience and impact in large part due to Adrian’s efforts.
“The high regard in which Wigtown Book Town and the annual Wigtown Book Festival are held is testament to Adrian’s creative flair and inspiration. He has been the driving force behind the organisation for 20 years and his energy and enthusiasm are infectious.”
Wigtown became Scotland’s National Book Town in 1998 and the festival began the next year, intended as a flagship event to attract visitors, promote the region and use the power of the arts to help regenerate a rural area that was facing severe economic challenges following the closure of the local creamery and distillery.
The festival, which also organises the Wigtown Poetry Prizes and the Anne Brown Essay Prize for Scotland, has since attracted a reputation for inventive programming and intimacy.
Bringing household literary names from across the UK to a town of under 1,000 people, it also celebrates the richness of southwest Scotland’s creative talent and heritage.
This year’s Wigtown Book Festival runs from 26 September to 5 October. The programme will be announced in August.
