The 2025 edition of Gloucester History Festival attracted its biggest audience on record.
Taking place from Saturday 6 to Sunday 21 September 2025, over 16,000 history lovers attended this year's festival, which featured big-name guests including Frank Skinner, Celia Imrie, Michael Heseltine, Professor Alice Roberts and Greg Jenner.
Blackfriars Priory once again provided an atmospheric venue for talks and debates, as well as a brand-new programme of free events in the ancient the Scriptorium – with a total of 150 events taking place across the city, including the Gloucester Day parade and Heritage Open Days.
For the first time this year, BBC Radio 4 was in attendance to record a special edition of the popular Great Lives programme with host Matthew Parris.
Pupils and teachers from 15 secondary schools in the county attended the festival thanks to a free ticket offer.
And all of the Blackfriars Talks were also livestreamed online and proved more popular than ever before, attracting viewers from as far as California, Vancouver and Tasmania.
Festival president and TV presenter, Professor Janina Ramirez, said: 'I’ve never been prouder of the Gloucester History Festival and I’m delighted that after 15 years we’re engaging and entertaining more history lovers than ever, both here in person and around the world online.'
Gloucester History Festival returns next year, with its Spring Weekend taking place from Friday 17 to Sunday 19 April 2026.
