A number of shows at the 10th edition of the Bradford Literature Festival have sold out as the event continues to bring the city together.
Visitors have told the BBC that the growth of the festival has brought more “art and culture” to Bradford over the decade it has been running.
Tickets for talks by comedian Sara Pascoe, actress Miriam Margolyes and poet Lemn Sissay have already gone.
The festival’s founder and artistic director Syima Aslam described the high sales as an “incredible start” to the event.
‘Multicultural and harmonious’
At the Festival Hub in City Park, visitors took in the exhibitions on offer while pondering which events to book.
Arif Javid, 57, has performed at Bradford Literature Festival in the past, but was enjoying being in the audience this year.
“It’s much bigger now than it was at the beginning,” he said, reflecting on how the festival has changed over the years.
“There are lots more notable people, lots more celebrities being invited and much more in the way of talks and lectures, which are really good.”
Mr Javid added: “You get people from all walks of life, all backgrounds, congregating together to form an audience.
“You get a feel of how multicultural it is and how harmonious it is.”
Mr Javid also praised the festival for exposing the cultural and artistic side of Bradford, giving people a platform to perform and express themselves.
“I think before the literature festival, they probably thought there must be some people who have that artistic leaning and have those skills,” he said.
“But nobody knew about who they were.
“If the literature festival has done anything it has exposed those and given them a platform.”
Another local attendee who has been to the festival numerous times during the last decade is teacher Anelofar Khan.
Ms Khan, 57, said the festival has been “enriching and “incredibly captivating”.
“The venues have got bigger,” she said.
“And there are more people in them.”
However, she said there is still more work to do spread the word about the festival.
She said: “I still think it could be advertised better, because there are still so many people I know who don’t know about it.”
The festival’s strength, Ms Khan said, is its diversity and ability to bring people together.
“On one of the talks that I went to, what I did notice was lots of black, Asian and white people,” Ms Khan said.
“You can tell it’s just trying to bring people together.”
David Walker, 32, visiting from Wakefield, said: “It’s bringing quite a lot of different people in.
“It’s brought people like Miriam Margolyes in and it’s sold out instantly, so it’s quite good to have big names like that.
“But then there’s also smaller people who people don’t know about.”
He added: “I think it does show that [Bradford] has actually got quite a good literature history and brings people to the city and shows off that culture that’s not normally thought of.
“It shows the different aspects of the city and the diversity of it as well.”
Over the years, Mr Walker said that the festival has “got better and more diverse”.
He added: “I think they’ve looked at what’s worked before and what’s not and made it even bigger this year.”
The festival has also attracted people from even further afield.
Alvin Moyo, 27, visiting the UK from Zimbabwe, made sure to make Bradford one of his stops while staying in Manchester.
He said he would expect the festival to be “in a big city but not in Bradford”.
Mr Moyo added: “It’s good for the city.”
Bradford Literature Festival has daily events for its duration. Tickets can be purchased at bradfordlitfest.co.uk.
