Inspiring creativity and opening up literature at the Cheltenham Literature Festival 

For over seven years Sky has been investing in and supporting leading literature festivals, and bringing the festival experience to those unable to attend through our broadcast coverage. Once again, we partnered with the Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, filming some of our Sky Arts programs in front of a festival audience and inspiring creativity by offering free performances and creative classes in the Sky Arts Den. 

The Sky Arts Den also offered people the opportunity to learn something new, from pottery and charcoal drawing to tango classes. We also invited people to relax in between festival events with live music from Jake Morley and the Swing Ninjas and dynamic spoken word performances from Sabrina Mahrouz and Indigo Williams. 

Visitors could also learn more about the Amazon Rainforest through our Sky Rainforest Rescue Canopy Walk experience.

We brought the festival to book lovers everywhere by filming four episodes of Sky Arts Mariella’s Book Show presented by Mariella Frostrup. She interviewed the best names at the festival in front of a festival audience, including Sir Roger Moore, Philip Pullman and Michael Chabon. 

Our other activities at Cheltenham Festival included;

• An exclusive advance screening of Sky Arts new series Parkinson: Masterclass with Jamie Cullum.
• Ross Kemp presenting about the making of his latest Sky1 HD feature, Invisible Wounded which looks into post-traumatic stress disorder that threatens those working in the forces to day.
• Sky News Foreign Affairs Editor, Tim Marshall speaking about why he believes the phrase Arab Spring is harmful to our understanding of what has been happening in the Middle East over the past 20 months.