Get set for 89th year of Broadstairs Dickens Festival

A grand parade, Mr Dickens Presents at the Sarah Thorne Theatre and a beach party are just some of the events taking place for the annual Dickens Festival from June 12-14.

The festival, which is marking its 89th year, will also include talks, a Victorian Summer fair and music and more.

The event celebrates the town’s link to the Victorian author who first visited in 1837 when he was 25.

After lodging at 12, High Street, where he worked on ‘Pickwick’, he took a house, which is now part of The Royal Albion Hotel, where he finished ‘Nicholas Nickleby’.

He also stayed at Lawn House, which is now Archway House, where he wrote part of Barnaby Rudge and finally at Fort House where he spent the majority of his holidays in Broadstairs and wrote part of ‘American Notes’, ‘David Copperfield’ and ‘The Haunted Man’.

It was at Fort House, now Bleak House, on his last long holiday in Broadstairs that he wrote ‘Our English Watering Place’ published in August 1852 and standing as a permanent reminder of his affection for the town.

In 1937, to commemorate the centenary of the author’s first visit, Gladys Waterer, the then resident of Dickens House, conceived the idea of putting on a production of David Copperfield and of having people about the town in Victorian dress to publicise it and the festival was born.

The Broadstairs Dickens Fellowship was formed the same year and today members meet in Broadstairs on the first Wednesday of each month.

There will also be Croquet, Mini Golf, children’s entertainment and competitions at the bandstand.

The Grand Parade from Pierremont Hall takes place from noon on June 13. The weekend also features perfoemances from The Dickens Declaimers.

Friday 12 June

Saturday 13 June

Sunday 14 June