Belfast Book Festival operates 'pay-what-you-want' policy

The Belfast Book Festival will operate a pay-what-you-want policy

A Belfast arts festival is to operate a pay-what-you-want policy for all its readings and events for the first time.

The Belfast Book Festival is taking place at the Crescent Arts Centre in south Belfast from 10-19 June.

While the festival recommends a ticket price of £7 for each event, audiences are given the option to attend without paying anything.

The chief executive of the centre, Sophie Hayles, said the pricing policy was a calculated risk.

Some arts organisations and festivals in Northern Ireland and the UK have previously run individual pay-what-you-want events.

The UK band Radiohead also adopted a similar approach for their In Rainbows album in 2007.

One of the world's largest arts festivals, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, is also running some pay-what-you-want shows in August 2022.

Sophie Hayles said they had decided to introduce the pay-what-you-want policy partly due to the rising cost of living

But the Belfast Book Festival is trying the approach for the first time.

It means that for more than 50 events, people will be given the option to pay nothing for a ticket when they book on the festival website.

But they can also decide to pay more than the recommended ticket price if they wish.

However, there will be a charge for participating in about 20 workshops being held during the festival.

Among the authors due to appear as part of the book festival are best-selling crime writer Ian Rankin, philosopher AC Grayling and Serena Terry, the creator of the Mammy Banter Tiktok videos.

'As accessible as possible'

Sophie Hayles said they had decided to introduce the pay-what-you-want policy partly due to the rising cost of living.

"There are increasing prices to pretty much everything and more increases to hit," she told BBC News NI.

"So we wanted to create an environment and approach that was as accessible as possible.

"We were also thinking about how our audiences value things and how we in turn as a festival value things.

"We don't have a hierarchy of value or say something is worth more than something else, but we give that decision to the customer.

"They decide how they value something."

Ms Hayles said they also hoped to attract people to the festival and the Crescent who had perhaps not attended before.

'Calculated risk'

"We're so lucky because we're a festival with a building - we have a home - so this year we've been really thinking about home and what home means.

"So as part of that we've been thinking about how we use our home a bit more, open our doors a bit more.

"It is a risk but it's a calculated risk and I hope it gives us more conversation points with audiences and people give us feedback."

Ms Hayles also said that the Crescent would be monitoring and evaluating how the pay-what-you-want approach worked in terms of ticketing and finance.