3 hours ago
5
Brit award-winning pop star Dua Lipa is to curate this year’s London literature festival at the Southbank Centre, organisers have announced.
The festival, now in its 19th year, will run from 21 October to 1 November, with Lipa shaping a programme of events across the opening weekend and beyond in collaboration with her Service95 book club. The news comes as part of the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary programme and during the UK’s National Year of Reading.
Lipa, who launched the book club in 2023 as an extension of her wider cultural platform Service95, has increasingly established herself as a prominent advocate for reading. Through monthly selections and long-form author interviews, she has sought to spotlight established writers and emerging voices, including podcast interviews with Margaret Atwood, George Saunders and Olga Tokarczuk.
“Reading has anchored me through every chapter of my life – from being the new kid at school in a new country to finding quiet refuge on tour,” Lipa said. “Curating the Southbank Centre’s London literature festival is a dream come true. I’m thrilled to indulge one of my greatest obsessions: books and the brilliant minds behind them.”
“Dua Lipa is a global cultural force with millions of fans around the world, and her passion for the written and spoken word has inspired a new generation of readers,” Mark Ball, artistic director of the Southbank Centre, said. “We’re absolutely thrilled that Dua will take the reins of our flagship London literature festival.”
The 2026 edition will feature a mix of ticketed and free events. Organisers say the programme will highlight both “favourite writers” selected by Lipa and new literary voices.
Last year, the festival was curated by Self Esteem, and previous headliners include Ai Weiwei, Greta Thunberg, Malala Yousafzai, Margaret Atwood, Philip Pullman, Tom Hanks and Yulia Navalnaya.
The Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary programme will also feature You Are Here – a large-scale site takeover conceived by Danny Boyle, Paulette Randall, Gareth Pugh and Carson McColl (3 May) – alongside Harry Styles’s Meltdown (11–21 June), Goalhanger: The Rest Is Fest (4–6 September), and a major exhibition marking Anish Kapoor’s return to the Hayward Gallery (16 June–18 October).
These events at the Southbank Centre will be complemented by a nationwide programme spanning art, literature and music, with the ambition of reaching more than one million people across more than 40 towns and cities in all four nations of the UK.
Ted Hodgkinson, head of literature and spoken word at the Southbank Centre, said that Lipa’s work had “sparked a global conversation around books”. “In the National Year of Reading, we’re delighted to be collaborating with Dua for the Southbank Centre’s London literature festival, to draw fresh audiences into our iconic spaces,” he added.
The full programme for this year’s festival is expected to be announced over the summer.
