Design, Illustration, Book & Film Festivals I’d Like to Visit in 2026
Wednesday 11th February 2026
I want to make 2026 the year that I go to more festivals than ever before. I’d like to visit design, illustration, book, and film festivals. Maybe even a music festival - but not if it involves camping.
Cultural festivals are the perfect place to get inspired, form fresh connections, recharge your motivation, discover new makers and learn more about those you already admire. Also, they are fun. And fun is important.
In a dream world, I’d spend the year visiting every event I like the look of. In reality, I’m not sure my wallet can stretch that far, but I am excited to attend as many as I can - and I’m sharing this list in case you fancy coming along too.
To make my list extra fun, I have colour-coded it: red for design, blue for illustration, yellow for books and pink for film. I’ve also added a ✹ next to all of the events which I have attended in previous years, each of which I would highly recommend.
Bologna Children's Book Fair
A 61-year-old, globally renowned festival bringing together publishers, illustrators, graphic designers, literary agents, printers, booksellers, teachers and librarians to celebrate kids’ books.
Date: 13th - 16th April 2026
Location: Bologna, Italy
CMYK Festival
A print and illustration festival organised by the Illustration & Animation degree course at Hereford College of Arts.
Date: 16th May 2026
Location: Hereford, England
Follow: Instagram
& Maybe More
Some other festivals that I am intrigued by the idea of, but I couldn’t find enough information about online to tell if they were happening in 2026…
Illustration Festival (Lyon, France)
The London Illustration Fair (London, England)
LUSTR (Czech Republic)
I’ll keep an eye on socials and update this article from time to time - maybe some of the above will get bumped up to the main list.