My Thoughts – Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival 2025

I have always wanted to go to Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival (or simply referred to as ‘Harrogate’ in my house) for years, but for one reason or another I haven’t been able to. But I’ve been unwell for the last 8 years and I thought “sod it, I’m going”, and so I emptied my savings and bought tickets for myself and my mother.

And now the dust has settled, I have recovered, and the piles of books have increased, I thought I’d share my thoughts on what I experienced that weekend. Please note, as a disabled person there will be a heavy accessibility theme in this blog.

Tickets
There are a choice of ticket types for the weekend; you can either go for the weekend break package (which I did), weekend/day rover tickets, and site passes. A site pass gets you access to the site, but then individual events must be purchased separately. A weekend/day rover ticket allows you in for the whole weekend or a chosen day, with a guaranteed seat in the main tent. But the weekend break package gives you three nights of accommodation in one of their festival hotels, access to all events in the main tent across the weekend, priority bookings for other events, as well as breakfast and lunch (lunch is only Friday and Saturday).

We chose the weekend break package because it was the easiest. Yes, it was the most expensive – even with a discount due to my mum coming as my carer, it still cost me the best part of £1,200. But it meant my accommodation was sorted, tickets, passes, breakfast, lunch, and goody bags, and we could just rock up and enjoy it from the start.

Accommodation
There are so many different options when it comes to accommodation. The Old Swan is the main festival hotel – in fact, the whole festival is hosted within the hotel or in the grounds. And so naturally I wanted to stay here, and I thought I was, but due to some miscommunication we found ourselves at The Crown, which was about a 3 minute walk (roll in a wheelchair) to the festival, and was just as lovely. The reason I was put in The Crown was because The Old Swan didn’t have any accessibility rooms left for me, and The Crown did, which was fine, although I’m not sure I would have called it an accessibility room. Yes it was by the lift, but there was no wet room, no way of getting into the bath or shower without having to step over an edge, no grab rails etc. But it was a lovely room in a lovely hotel with lovely staff.

Site
The festival is spread out across The Old Swan Hotel site. I would imagine the set-up is the same every year but please be aware this could be subject to change. But once you’re on site, you go and collect your tickets from the first tent (if you’re on a weekend ticket you only need to do this on the first day), as well as a goody bag FILLED TO THE BRIM with exciting goodies. Once you pass this, there is a small tent to the right where you can sit and meet with people, and where they also held introductory sessions on the first day to answer any questions. In front of the hotel is the big bar tent which has a bar running down one side, and then about a dozen long benches. A very popular destination for wasps I can say.

Next to the big bar tent is a big green space filled with chairs, tables, deckchairs, and tables for you to use. There is also a smaller tent next door where some publisher events happen. Once you pass the hotel, you get to a long upwards slope (see ‘access’ for more detail); half way up that is a tent reserved for publisher parties, there is a quiet area if you want to just read and take in the peace, and then at the top of the hill is the main tent which is HUGE, and this is where you’ll go to for the first night awards ceremony and the main talks and panels.

Throughout the weekend, pop-up stalls appear (see ‘pop ups’ below) in front of the hotel bookshop, and within the hotel foyer. These are generally publishers who are offering free proofs, competitions, games, freebies, snacks etc. and chances to meet the authors.

Access
If you are disabled, you can join their Access Scheme, which is designed to ensure they can serve any guest with specific access needs. Bookings are for wheelchair users, those with visual impairments, deaf people, aisle seat requirements, and neurodiverse guests, but I applied due to being an ambulatory wheelchair user and requiring a carer. As mentioned above, I got a discount due to my mum coming as an essential carer, and so you can qualify for a complimentary ticket for them.

Overall, I think they did a good job with accessibility but there were some sticky bits. Let me start by saying that not everything can be made accessible. Harrogate is on a hill, the hotel is on a hill, they can’t change that. But the main tent (see more info below) is at the top of a hill. There are two routes to the hill, one for most guests, and the other for Friends of the Festival or access patrons. The access route is marginally less steep than the main one and so, for me, didn’t really qualify as accessible, and you had to go down the main one once finished.

The bar tent is in a slight dip and so they have placed hessian-type paths from the main ground down into the bar tent, but there is still a big lip to get onto that bit, and it is steep, which meant I had to get out the wheelchair to walk down them (I was luckily having a good day mobility wise, but there’s a chance I might not have been). There are also very few dropped kerbs/pathways on site. Obviously, this can’t be helped, but I thought it could have been improved by just lying down some temporary ramps like they use at train stations or for getting into shops for instance.

And also the disabled toilet (of which there is one in the women’s – not sure about the men’s) was a bit, out of the way. Instead of being separate, it is within the women’s toilets, right at the back, which means you have to skip the queue to get to it and you aren’t sure if anyone’s in there until you’ve made your way in, so in an ideal world this would be separate but that’s not something that can be done overnight.

One great thing about the access scheme though is that you didn’t have to go to the main tent for the events. There is a room in the bookshop for Friends of the Festival that live streams all the events going on in the main tent, and those on the access scheme were also able to use it. Which meant I didn’t have to go up the big hill to the main tent if I wasn’t up to it.

Pop Ups
What I concluded from my weekend there was that the Pop Up events were the most popular – I mean, who doesn’t love a freebie! Not every pop-up gives you the chance to come home with a proof, but most of them did. But they also have spin-the-wheels, competitions, quizzes, snacks, tombolas – you name it. The pop-ups are not listed in the initial programme, but the closer you get to the event, the more info comes out, and you can make a note of the ones you want to go to.

But be aware they get BUSY! For example, Viking publishers were hosting a Thursday Murder Club quiz and the chance to go home with a proof of Richard Osman’s newest book (out in September 2025). This started at 10am. We happened to already be on site by about 9am, and so after using the facilities, I suggested we go and queue, and I’m glad we did because there were already a dozen people in front of us, and by 10am the queue was stretched way down the corridor, with no guarantee of getting in. This was the case for a lot of pop-ups around the site, so if there’s a proof you HAVE to have, or an author you HAVE to meet, then do get in the queue early.

But I mean, I ended up coming home with about 14 proofs for 2025 and 2026, so it’s well worth it if you don’t mind hanging around.

Publisher Events
There are a number of private publisher events going on throughout the weekend too, but I believe they are normally invitation only. I was lucky to be invited to the Pan Macmillan party (there were probably about 100 people there, out of the 20,000+ tickets bought for the main festival). This was in the private tent up by the main tent and was filled with tables and chairs and benches where you could sit and chat, and a bar offering free beer and wine, and there’s music on. We also got the opportunity to take a number of proofs available. This was also the night I got to meet my favourite author and we spent a good few hours chatting, and whilst it was loud and I was exhausted, I really liked it.

Main Tent Events
You need to pace yourself here. Before we went, I had gone through the programme and written down all the talks and panels I wanted to go to, but I was told from everyone that had been before that you MUST pace yourself – and that’s without taking my illness and fatigue levels into account. As it happens, we didn’t actually see any panel events until the last day, the Sunday. The two days previous were spent meeting people, sharing a drink, going to pop-ups, meeting authors, book shopping etc.

The Main Tent is, unsurprisingly, where the main events are. On the opening evening, Thursday, there is the award ceremony for best debut, crime novel of the year, and also the outstanding contribution award (this went to Elly Griffiths). This event takes around an hour and then you all meet up in the bar tent to chat over some drinks. They also have panel events with maybe 4 or 5 authors and an interviewer, as well as one-to-one interviews. The talks we saw (in the access room) were Kate Atkinson being interviewed by Lee Child, and then a panel with Antony Johnston, Cara Hunter, Janice Hallett, Rev Richard Coles, and John Finnemore. These events usually last around 1 hour and are half an hour apart.

Signings
Next to the bookshop is the signing room – the queue starts in the bookshop. Again, I would advise getting on the queue quickly. Whilst I don’t think there was a time limit, obviously the room has to be clear for the next author and they normally are ready about 90 minutes after the end of the previous one. There is a limit of 3 books per author per person, but you can chat to them and have photos taken. I wasn’t up to carrying dozens of books around and so I had purchased an autograph book, and I got everyone to sign that which was quite fun.

Authors
As you can guess, there are a lot of authors there that weekend, either as a visitor or as a special guest. I am not someone who gets starstruck by “celebs” but it was thrilling to go author-spotting. Generally, the authors are more than happy for you to come up to them and talk to them, have a photo with them, get them to sign your book. I only came across one author (who shall remain nameless) who was less than perfect. They weren’t rude as such, but didn’t engage in conversation and it almost felt like I’d interrupted their time, even though the other author with them was perfectly pleasant and engaged in conversation. But that could have been anything, a bad day, tiredness etc. so I won’t hold it against them. But obviously, if the author looks to be in a deep conversation, or is looking sad or busy etc. then do give them some space. But overall, the authors are aware that they wouldn’t have a job without us reading their books, so more often than not they love you coming up to them.

I did go up to all the authors I wanted to, except for Jo Callaghan. She sat about 3 seats away from me in the awards ceremony, and then I saw her on occasion over the weekend but just felt too anxious to actually go and speak to her, knowing how much I loved her.

Oh and I also got the chance to meet up with some of the other bloggers I’ve been talking to online for several years, which was lovely. Being disabled and being ill can be very isolating, even if you have got books to lose yourself in, so it was just so nice to speak to like-minded people.

Shop
Okay, so, the dangerous part. The shop is in the left hand part of the hotel and is run by Waterstones and it is FULL of the best crime and thriller novels. The lovely staff move the books around depending on who is doing a talk at that moment, but you can go in and buy books whenever you want – and I did. I think in the 3.5 days I was there I bought about 40-50 books, but I could have been so much worse.

Food
Food was always going to be a difficult thing for me because I have so many (weird) allergies that I can get quite anxious about eating somewhere new. There are some tuck shops and food vans on site, but I didn’t use them so I can’t comment. But if you have a weekend break package, then you get free breakfast in your hotel on the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning, and lunch on Friday and Saturday, and the lunch was great. It was in the main restaurant area of the hotel which is very fancy-pants. There are dozens of really big round tables with complimentary water. The menu only had 2-3 mains and 2 puddings on there for each day and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to eat anything. But I had printed off a list of all my allergies and the waitress took this to the chef each day to ensure that what I’d chosen was suitable for me which I appreciated. But I thought lunch would be a buffet, pizza, that kind of thing. But I had salmon with vegetables the first day and I also had fish the next day (I can’t remember what one) with mash potato and vegetables. It was delicious and far fancier than I anticipated.

The restaurant is not open at The Old Swan for the weekend because they put on author dinners in the evening (which I didn’t go to), and so you will need to make your own arrangements regarding dinner.

People
And finally, I can’t leave without complimenting the staff. I know this is not the only festival they put on in the year, but I can’t imagine the amount of work that goes into it. There are staff everywhere, and a number of volunteers, and they were all so lovely and so helpful, especially with my access needs. The waiting staff in the main hotel, the receptionists, the staff in The Crown Hotel, the volunteers, the cleaners, the bar staff, security – everyone was just so welcoming.

So that’s that. Yes it was expensive. Yes it was busy. Yes it was loud. And yes, I was very anxious. But I am so glad I went. I am unlikely to go again – or if I am, it won’t for a long time, and it would definitely be easier if I wasn’t in the wheelchair but there we are. But I would want to go again, because there’s always new authors and new books to read. So if you’re dithering about going, I would say go for it. If you’re a big book fan, and you can afford it, then I definitely recommend it. It is such great fun. You get to meet a lot of lovely people, meet your favourite authors, and hey, free books!