Cheltenham Festivals has recently been made aware of fraudulent emails and messages circulating that falsely claim to represent Cheltenham Literature Festival.

These communications appear to target authors, agents and speakers, inviting participation in the festival and, in some cases, requesting payment.

We would like to reassure our community that this activity is not connected to Cheltenham Festivals in any way.

How to recognise genuine Cheltenham Festivals communications

To help protect you, please note:

• We do not charge authors or speakers any fees to participate in Cheltenham Literature Festival or any of our programmes.
• We will only contact individuals using official email addresses ending in:
  @cheltenhamfestivals.org
• Any formal invitations or agreements are issued through our established programming processes and verified channels.
• We do not request payments via third-party services, personal accounts, cryptocurrency, or informal bank transfers.

What to do if you receive a suspicious message

If you are contacted by someone claiming to represent Cheltenham Literature Festival and are unsure of its authenticity:

• Do not respond or make any payments
• Forward the message to: [email protected]
• Delete the message after reporting

Your vigilance helps us protect the integrity of the festival and the wider literary community.

Our response

We are actively investigating these reports and working with relevant organisations to address the misuse of our name.

Cheltenham Festivals takes this matter extremely seriously. The trust of our audiences, authors and partners is central to everything we do.

Thank you

We are grateful to those who have already brought this issue to our attention. If you have any concerns or questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us directly.