The UK Ghost Story Festival is back once again, and 2026 will see its sixth spooky season of interviews, writing workshops, panels, talks and more with some of the UK’s leading writers and experts in the field! Returning to its ‘spiritual’ home of QUAD, this year’s event runs from the 27th Feb to the 1st March, with three days of loaded activity perfect for aspiring authors, rapacious readers and fans of all things ghoulish and ghostly!
As always, we have full event and Saturday passes available, offering great value for anyone looking to take in the full array of events, with individual tickets available to each of the 38 events over the weekend.
See an at-a-glance list of what’s on at the festival by clicking here.
Join us in Britain’s most haunted city for three days of author interviews, talks, workshops, panels and more
01 Jan
Uncover the full extent of the varied animals to be found in the magical menagerie.
27 Feb
Uncover the full extent of the varied animals to be found in the magical menagerie.
27 Feb
Workshops for Adults
Conjuring and interrogating spectres to build the bones of a contemporary ghost story.
27 Feb
How the LGBTQ+ community have embraced horror and its icons.
27 Feb
How the LGBTQ+ community have embraced horror and its icons.
27 Feb
Malcolm Schofield explores his relationship with the paranormal, and the journey from sceptic to parapsychologist.
27 Feb
Workshops for Adults
Exploring the fine art of the twist, and how it can be applied to your supernatural tale.
27 Feb
Workshops for Adults
Discover how to distil your novel into a short and punchy pitch.
27 Feb
An in depth look at the spirits of nature. Where did they come from? Who are they?
27 Feb
Workshops for Adults
How to write about ghost characters hiding their identity and their motivations.
27 Feb
Festival regulars Mark and Tracey discuss their fascination with folklore, their work in the field, their ongoing res...
27 Feb
A 90-walk full of tortured spirits who met a grisly end, including both the murderers and their victims
27 Feb
What horrors haunt Derbyshire’s moors, caves, and villages
27 Feb
Workshops for Adults
Exploring some of the challenges and opportunities presented by pacing in ghost stories.
27 Feb
A darkly humorous collection of tales with modern takes on classic supernatural traditions.
27 Feb
An in-depth interview with bestselling ghost story and Gothic fiction author Catriona Ward.
27 Feb
A panel exploring the full spectrum of spectres.
28 Feb
Workshops for Adults
The latest patented cure-all from award-nominated author and horror editor Daniel Carpenter.
28 Feb
How the “spectral feminine” has evolved from literary Gothic heroines into the haunted women of modern cinema.
28 Feb
As horror continues its revival in 2026, where does the ghost story fit in that space?
28 Feb
Workshops for Adults
The importance of balancing characters, plot, and world building in our writing.
28 Feb
Free Event
Featuring over 30 traders and free to visit.
27 Feb - 01 Mar
Workshops for Adults
Understanding the cultural meanings and social-historical baggage of the ghosts and monsters
28 Feb
Dive into the many ways traditional beliefs and traditions can impact horror fiction.
28 Feb
Workshops for Adults
How to make your ghost stories unambiguously ambiguous for your readers.
28 Feb
Workshops for Adults
Exploring ways (from self publishing to big anthologies) to get your writing in front of readers.
28 Feb
What different approaches can we take when telling a ghost story?
28 Feb
Workshops for Adults
Exploring how the motion of spectres can evoke different responses in the minds of readers.
28 Feb
Workshops for Adults
Ways to use the weird and the uncanny to unsettle readers before your ghost even appears.
28 Feb
Free Event
A team of professional body-painting artists transform the human form into living canvases.
28 Feb
A 90 minute walk full of weird occurrences from Derby’s history.
28 Feb
A house is more than just a place to lay your head at night. Sometimes, the walls remember…
28 Feb
Workshops for Adults
Wrestling with that draft book?
28 Feb
Jon Dear discusses his new release exploring the history and legacy of the BBC’s spooky festive tradition.
28 Feb
A lone traveller befriends a railway signalman who has a terrifying tale to tell.
28 Feb
Who was Lady Mary Howard, and how did she become part of Dartmoor’s creepiest ghost stories?
01 Mar
Workshops for Adults
The key elements of ghost stories and how these themes can be used or inverted.
01 Mar
A journey through the history of spooky cowboy movies.
01 Mar
Dracula‘s connections to fears around real-life survival cannibalism.
01 Mar
Workshops for Adults
Are there ways to bring ghosts into the worlds of science-fiction?
01 Mar
Dare you pry into the secrets of the Screaming Skulls of British folklore…?
01 Mar
16 Dec 2025
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